Nightfall
by ReinaWa
Summary: Harry Potter is use to being overshadowed by his twin, Charlie. His aunt and uncle take Charlie in as their own son, but mistreat Harry. When they both find out they're wizards set to attend Hogwarts, Harry is determined to stand out from his brother and carve his own path in the wizarding world. Eventual Dark!Harry. Boys-Who-Lived. Slytherin!Harry. Manipulative!Dumbledore. AU.
1. Prologue

Harry wearily opened his eyes as his aunt's screeching woke him from his dream. He quickly got dressed as Vernon and Dudley stomped their way down the stairs, sending spiders flying in the cupboard. He picked a few off of his arms and scurried out of the cupboard hurrying to the kitchen before his aunt could scream anymore. He was already on to frying the bacon as the others began pouring into the kitchen for food. The table was overflowing with presents that Dudley was now failing to count. He kept the bitter look off of his face carefully. He didn't want to know what kind of punishment would await if he dared to ruin precious Dudley's birthday.

"Morning Harry."

"Charlie don't waste your time on your troublemaker brother. Here, sit and have some eggs," Petunia cooed ushering Charlie into the fourth and final chair at the table. Harry sat the plate of bacon that was piled high and quietly stood as the Dursley's began to eat. He nibbled on his allotment of the feast he had just prepared for the others, a small piece of toast that was rather burnt.

A small part of him thought he was the one who deserved to sit at the table, instead of Charlie but Charlie was the only one who the Dursleys liked. They had lived there as long as Harry could remember, but Charlie had always been the one who fit into the family. Petunia doted over him, not as much as her precious Duddikins but certainly more than Harry. Even his dull brown hair and brown eyes fit in more than Harry's raven hair and emerald eyes. Petunia said his eye color was unnatural, and tended to swat Harry across the head anytime he met her gaze.

Charlie also didn't make the teacher's hair turn blue or somehow appear on the school's roof unlike Harry. Charlie also liked to rough house with Dudley and ran around with Dudley's gang at school and in the neighborhood. Harry preferred to read books whenever he could and avoid Dudley's gang as much as possible, as he was often their favorite victim. Charlie also got new clothes, unlike Harry who often had to wear Dudley's oversize cast offs. The only thing identical about the twins was the two thin lightning shaped scars on their foreheads.

"Mrs. Figg has broken her leg. I'm afraid she won't be able to take the boy today," Petunia said, setting the phone back down on the receiver.

"Harry could come with us," Charlie suggested. Dudley immediately began to protest. As much as Harry would love to go to a zoo, he did not want to go with Dudley and Charlie.

"I can stay here," Harry offered, "I'll be good."

"What about Yvonne?" Vernon asked glaring at Harry. Harry looked back down at the floor pretending to be interested in a speck of dirt.

"She's abroad," Petunia answered.

"We'll have to take the freak then. I won't leave him here and find the house in shambles," Vernon grunted- shushing Dudley's continued protesting. Harry held back a sigh as he began to clear the table, he knew Dudley would find some way to make this trip miserable.

A short while later he found himself crammed into the backseat with Piers, Dudley, and Charlie who were all talking about a recent video game. Harry stayed silent as possible. Not only did he not know anything they were discussing, as he was not allowed to play such things, Vernon had already given him a very frightening reminder to do his best to pretend not to exist. He was too terrified to let out a peep even as Dudley began pinching him half way to London.

It was a relief when the car finally stopped and the boys filed out of the backseat and Dudley had something new to turn his attention on instead of Harry. It had even begun to turn out to be a decent day. He had even got some ice cream, a rare treat for him. It helped the gnawing pain in his stomach from his minimal breakfast.

He was excited when they entered the reptile house. He often read books about reptiles at the school library. He wandered around staying close enough to the rest but also far enough away that they wouldn't be tempted to bother him instead of the animals. He was staring at a very large snake that seemed to be sleeping in its enclosure. Dudley had already abandoned it as it was not doing anything entertaining. The snake begun to stir slightly, staring at him and drawing in close meeting his eyes. It seemed to study him as he stood there.

"I hope you aren't trying to size me up just to eat me. I wouldn't taste very good," he told it, tilting his head. The snake seemed to shake its head to say no. Harry looked at the plaque nearby and read over it quickly.

"I wonder what Brazil is like, oh but it says you were born in captivity so you wouldn't know either huh?" he mused to himself, the snake shook its head no again. This time it seemed to be rather sad though, flicking out its tongue and wobbling its head. "I hear it's nice. I'd like to see it one day."  
"WOAH! LOOK AT WHAT THE SNAKE IS DOING NOW," Dudley yelled as he ran up to Harry and shoved him out of the way so hard he landed on his bum. Harry glanced up as Dudley began to bang on the glass annoying the snake. The glass at the moment seemingly disappeared into midair and the large snake crawled its way out of the enclosure taking a moment to playfully snap at Dudley's heels.

"Thankss amigoo. Sseee you in Brazil ssomeday," the snake said as it made its escape through the zoo. Harry gave it a smile before pandemonium took over the reptile house.

The zoo director apologized over and over again to Petunia and Vernon as the keepers tried to find out where the snake and glass had gone. He secretly hoped they would never find the snake but he tried his best to look ignorant of what had happened. He almost begun to think he had gotten away with it until they were in the car on the way back to Privet Drive. The other three boys were talking excitedly about the escaped snake.

"Harry was talking to it weren't cha, Harry?" Piers blurted excitedly as Dudley finished regaling the tale of the now thirty foot killer python that almost killed him.

"Snakes don't talk Piers. Harry was just reading the information on the plaque out loud," Charlie rolled his eyes.

"But he was hissing at it!" Piers protested. Harry looked quickly at Vernon's neck which was steadily turning purple. That was never a good sign.

Vernon didn't speak until Piers was safely seen home. "Cupboard. Now. No Meals,' he sputtered out finally. Harry scampered away before Vernon decided he wanted to use his fists. He didn't dare argue, he knew he could always sneak out for food later when the Dursleys were in bed asleep.

The zoo incident earned him his longest punishment he could remember. By the time he was allowed back out of his cupboard, the summer holidays were well on their way. He was just thankful it hadn't gone till Christmas like Vernon had threatened.

Harry was cooking breakfast once more as Petunia was stirring a big bucket full of lumpy gray clothes. He grimaced at the thought of wearing the clothes she was preparing and wondered why even though Charlie was going to the same secondary school, he was getting a brand new uniform and not a hasty dye job of old clothing three sizes too large. Harry was set to be an outcast at Stonewall as well. He turned his nose up at the vat of nastiness and turned back to breakfast as Charlie complained about not being able to go to Smeltings like Dudley.

"Dudley get the mail," Vernon spoke as he opened up his newspaper.

"Make Harry do it!" Dudley whined.

"Make Charlie do it!" Harry copied, dodging a blow from Dudley's new stick.

"Harry go get the mail," Vernon spoke sternly this time with none of the softness he had asked Dudley with. Harry dodged another blow and went to the door. He shifted through the mail and was surprised to find that among the normal pieces of mail there were two heavy thick envelopes. One addressed to him and a identical one addressed to Charlie. He wondered who would possible write either one of them as their only relations lived in the same house as them. He ran his fingers over the elegant lettering.

 _Mr. H. Potter_

 _The Cupboard under the stairs_

 _4 Privet Drive_

 _Little Whinging_

 _Surrey_

And

 _Mr. C. Potter_

 _The Smallest Bedroom_

 _4 Privet Drive_

 _Little Whinging_

 _Surrey_

Neither letter had a stamp attached or return address which was very bizarre. He hurried back as Vernon yelled and handed over the postcard from Aunt Marge and the bills. He handed Charlie his envelope and went to open his own. Charlie sat his on the table without looking at it. Vernon was engrossed in his newspaper and Petunia was tending to the bacon so neither noticed anything amiss.

"Dad! Dad! Why did they get a letter and not me?" Dudley whined. Harry shot him a look pleading for Dudley to be quiet for once in his life. It was hopeless because he had already stirred Vernon away from his paper.

"What the devil are you talking about?" Vernon snapped slamming down his newspaper. He snatched the two envelopes up, giving Harry a gnarly paper cut at the force. "No one writes these two," he glared before turning his attention to the offending pieces of mail. "P-p-pet…"

Petunia turned around brandishing a spatula. She looked at the papers for a second before turning deathly pale and dropping it, clutching her throat in terror. Harry watched the scene extremely confused as to why they were looking at the letters as if they would explode any moment.

"Everyone to their rooms now!" she shrieked. The three tried to protest with no avail. Vernon was already turning purple- Harry fled first knowing better then to draw Vernon's ire. He also was hoping to be able to hear them through his cupboard door as they talked about the letters. He laid on his cot as quiet as he could so that he could listen to the muffled voices.

"What do we do?" Petunia asked, "Look it even says what bedrooms they are in!'

"They must be watching us. I won't have it. I knew the freak was no good but the other one seemed normal. I won't have it, Pet! Not in my house,' Vernon muttered furiously.

"Should we write back? Say we don't want to send them?" Petunia suggested meekly.

"No. We will just ignore it and not write back at all. They should get the hint."

"But Vernon…"

"I won't have such things in my house. I refuse! We swore we would set those two right Pet, no matter what it took. That we would stamp out this dangerous nonsense."

They must have moved after that because Harry could no longer hear them speaking. He stayed in his cupboard not willing himself to come out yet just in case even as the front door slammed shut as Vernon left and the day passed.

He shrunk as far back as possible as the door to his cupboard flew open.

"Those letters were not for either of you. They've been burned and I don't want to hear any more about it," he said sternly but with an even more frightening smile on his face. Harry nodded quickly trying to make himself seem as small as possible. Vernon looked around the cupboard with a scrunched nose.

"Me and your aunt have been thinking. You are much too big for this cupboard. We've decided to move you into Charlie's room. We've even got you a bunk bed," Vernon smiled. Harry decided not to argue even though it was very unnerving and quickly gathered his things under Vernon's supervision. It only took one trip to move all of it upstairs. He awkwardly stood holding his stuff looking at Charlie.

"I'm taking the top bunk," Charlie declared after scrutinizing him a bit. Harry nodded and put his things in the tiny corner Charlie had cleared out for him. "And don't touch my things," Charlie commanded with a frown. Harry stared at the bottom of the top bunk for hours but couldn't sleep. He waited until he heard soft snores coming from above before he grabbed his blanket and pillow and tiptoed to the closet settling into the floor before sleep overtook him.

The next morning two more letters had arrived and the day after, even more. Vernon had gone positively unhinged going as far to nail the door shut with them all inside. Harry had tried to covertly take a letter but failed every time.

"No post on Sundays,' Vernon hummed merrily until the letters began pouring from the chimney. He went mad tearing down the door and having them all pack a bag and load into the car. Even Petunia seemed too scared to speak up against him. They didn't stop all day but still the letters found them as soon as they had stopped. Vernon then lead them on a crazy trip to a broken down shack they had to reach by rickety boat.

Harry was laying on the floor without even a blanket, staring at the clock waiting for his birthday to arrive. It was almost peaceful if he ignored the snores, and crashing waves outside. That was until there was a loud knock at the door. Everyone bolted up staring at the door. They were in the middle of nowhere after all. The knocking started again but no one dared to open the door. It swung open and in walked the biggest man Harry had ever seen. The giant seemed to even struggle to fit through the doorway.

"Harry! Charlie!" the giant called fondly making his way over to the twins. They looked at each other in disbelief. They certainly didn't know this man. "Happy Birthday to ya both! I've brought ya a cake. Gimme a second ter find it." The giant began searching through his giant pockets.

"Now look here! I don't know who you are and you are trespassing," Vernon said waving the gun he had bought earlier. The giant just grumbled unperturbed and took the gun, twisting the metal into a pretzel and dropped it.

"Be quiet would ya Dursley," the man turned back to the twins and continuing to dig through his large pockets digging out all manner of strange things some of which even moved. 'Where are me manners. I'm Hagrid, Keeper and Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts." The giant finally found the cake and sat it on the rotting table and started pulling out a kettle and tea bags.

"Hogwarts?" Charlie asked, backing up slowly to be closer to Petunia.

"Yer don't know 'bout Hogwarts?" Hagrid shouted. Harry flinched away.

"Er-no," Harry answered quietly staring at the ground.

"Where did ya think yer parents learned it all then?"

"Um…learned what?" Charlie questioned.

"LEARNED WHAT? Learned what? Did ya tell these boys nuthin about what they are!" he asked furiously walking towards Vernon and Petunia who ushered Charlie and Dudley behind them. He shook his large head. "Charlie, Harry. Yer wizards just like your da' and mum were," Hagrid said ignoring Vernon's loud protests.

"Oh great. We're stuck in a shack. In the middle of nowhere. With a lunatic!" Charlie exclaimed.

"Oi! I'm not a lunatic. Haven't ya ever wondered why weird things happen around ya?" Hagrid questioned. Harry found himself nodding despite himself. Charlie shook his head furiously.

"Yer the worst lot of muggles I've ever come to known," Hagrid turned his attention to Vernon. "How could ya not tell them about their parents?"

"Muggles?" Harry asked softly.

"Muggles. It's the name we give people like them. Nonmagical folk," Hagrid stopped to explain.

"I'm not like Harry! I don't make freaky things happen! I must be a muggle too. I'm normal," Charlie protested.

"Course yer a wizard too. Ya got a letter and everythin'," Hargid patted Charlie on the back causing him to take several steps forward and handed both boys their letters. Harry turned towards Petunia who had anger and not shock across her face.

"You knew didn't you?" Harry accused.

"Knew? Of course we knew! How could you not be given what my sister was and then flaunting that ruddy boy around? We thought Charlie would be normal but I guess you can't stomp out the bad genes! Only I saw Lily for what she was! My parents were absolutely delighted to have a witch in the family, but I knew all along she was a freak. Then she went and got herself blown up and left us to deal with you two!" Petunia screeched pointing her finger in their direction.

Charlie began crying, real tears pouring down his face. "I thought you said they died in a car crash," he whimpered.

Hagrid lost it at that point and began to lay into the other two adults. Harry had never seen Vernon looked so cowed. He ignored the small part of him that was glad Charlie finally got to see what Harry had been suffering this entire time.

The next morning the twins were led to Diagon Alley to get their school supplies. It took some convincing to get Charlie to come along but Harry accepted immediately. He mostly just wanted to know where it was possible to get spellbooks in London.

Their first stop was Gringrotts where Hagrid explained their parents had left them some money for their schooling. Harry went into his vault with just the goblin as Hagrid went into Charlie's. He began to fill his bag with the gold after staring thoughtfully at the pile. He turned towards the goblin.

"Mr. Griphook, is this considered enough to get through school? I'm afraid my aunt and uncle won't be helping with such expenses," he asked. The goblin studied him for a long time before replying. He looked over a large tomb he had brought in with him.

"It seems your parents liquidated most of their assets during the war. The money from the liquidation was split evenly between the two vaults. They were considered very wealthy so even half their fortune could last you a lifetime if spent wisely. Not that I trust wizards to do such a thing. There is also a family vault with heirlooms and such you may claim upon adulthood as the older twin. Whether or not you allow access to the other is up to you," Griphook replied with a snarling grin. Charlie had certainly not made a fan of the goblin.

"Thank you. That was valuable information," Harry replied with his own smirk.

"You're a strange one. No wizard remembers a goblins name or thanks them," Griphook commented staring holes into Harry.

"Don't bite the hand that feeds you?" he offered.

"I do not understand," Griphook stated.

"It's a … muggle saying. In this case it means don't be rude to those who handle your money," he explained as they closed the vault up. He waved goodbye to Griphook as they left and went about finishing their shopping.

"Hello," a blonde boy said as Harry went to a fitting room. Charlie was led to a different one. "Hogwarts too?"

Harry nodded. The blonde looked him over before beginning to talk about Hogwarts and something called Quidditch. "What house to you think you'll be in? I bet I'll end up in Slytherin, my whole family has. It's really the best house after all. What about your parents?" the blonde finally slowed down.

"I'm not sure. They're dead," Harry shrugged.

"Oh I'm sorry," the blonde said with a frown.

"Don't be, I never even knew them."

A silence fell as the two witches kept working on pinning everything into place.

"Draco Malfoy,' the blonde introduced himself after they had almost finished.

"Harry," he replied jumping down and proceeding to the front.

"I suppose I'll see you at Hogwarts?" Malfoy asked as Harry went to leave. He gave a noncommitting shrug before going to pay.

They went on to the wand shop, Hagrid leaving them at the door. Charlie ended up with an 11 inch willow and unicorn hair wand very quickly. Charlie didn't seem to appreciate his new wand and instead stuffed it quickly back into the box despite the strange shopkeepers frowning. Harry's wand was proving to be a difficult find however. Instead of being discouraged, each failed wand seemed to excite Ollivander further.

"Perhaps…" the strange man trailed off shooting towards the back of the store before appearing with a new box, "one of my finest pieces. 11 inches, holly and phoenix feather. Go on give it a try."

Harry gently lifted the wand and gave it a wave. This time instead of causing explosions the books nearby levitated slowly and purposefully before falling back down.

"That's the one!" Ollivander exclaimed happily. "Curious though, very curious…"

"What's so curious?" Charlie asked, frowning.

"Well, your twin's wand has a brother of its own. The phoenix whose feather is in his wand, drop one other feather. Strange your brother would pick this wand of all the others in my shop when its pair gave you both your scars," Ollivander began mumbling to himself and writing things down furiously in a notebook. Being ignored the two boys just sat their money down for the wands and left the shop quickly. They were greeted by Hagrid holding up two cages.

"Happy Birthday!" Hagrid exclaimed handing them both one of the cages each. "I saw ya lookin' at these two when we were walkin' by."

Inside of Harry's was a gorgeous snowy owl staring back at him intelligently. He looked over at Charlie's to see a white kitten with tiny gray paws.

"Thank you Hagrid," they both said.

They headed back to Privet Drive on their own, with all their school things in tow. They were quickly hurried into the house.

"Aunt Petunia. I don't want to go to this school! These people are weird! I heard these ladies talking about dragons!" Charlie cried. Petunia's gaze softened as she pulled Charlie into a hug.

"I know, but you have to go. It's not your fault your brother infected you with this nonsense. We should have never taken him in," Petunia comforted. Harry opened his mouth to protest but instead just made his way upstairs where he let his new owl out of her cage to stretch her wings out. Charlie came in later and glared at the owl.

"That beast better not hurt Storm," he spat holding the kitten close to his chest.

"They eat rodents. And I've already told Hedwig the cat is off limits," Harry replied turning his attention back to his new book, rolling over so his back faced Charlie. He ignored the names Charlie was calling him. After all, freak now meant Charlie as well.


	2. Chapter 1

**Year 1**

Harry quickly sidestepped the sharp claws as he tried to finish packing for Hogwarts. The cat was a bloody menace and seemed to hate Harry with every fiber in its body. It got along well with the Dursleys in that regard he supposed. He resisted the urge to kick the growing kitten and went back to gathering his books from around his tiny portion of their room.

He had already devoured most of his schoolbooks in the long wait for the school term to begin. He found it all very fascinating and did not want to be left behind once school did start. Despite Harry's enthusiasm, Charlie ignored any mention of Hogwarts, having stuffed everything in his school trunk and had not extracted anything since their trip to Diagon Alley. Charlie seemed perfectly happy to pretend he was completely normal and nothing had happened out of the ordinary that summer. Despite Charlie's pleading and whining, Petunia had said it wasn't her choice and that Charlie must go to Hogwarts. She refused to elaborate on why, however.

Charlie came in and begun to put some extra items in his trunk including his Gameboy and a few games. The demon cat jumped up onto Charlie's shoulder and glared at Harry from its new position as if daring him to get any closer.

"Charlie, you can't take that," Harry warned shutting his trunk gently. Charlie crossed his arms, seemingly trying to flex his nonexistent muscles.

"It's mine. I can take it."

"No you really can't. The magic at Hogwarts will break it. You can't have electronics there. Not even digital watches work," Harry explained patiently. Charlie snorted and put the Gameboy in his bag anyway. Harry held back a sigh, he had warned Charlie so if the Gameboy did break or catch fire that was Charlie's own fault. He knew Vernon wouldn't be happy to replace it either. He had only gotten Charlie one because Dudley complained about having to share with him.

As soon as they arrived at King's Cross the next morning Harry took off, tearing away from the group. Harry walked around for a while looking for Platform 9 3/4. He had read in one of his books on how to get to the platform. He wasn't sure if Charlie had the same information or not, but he wasn't going to stick around the Dursleys and find out. That was Charlie's own problem and Petunia was hanging over Charlie and crying anyway. None of them even noticed Harry had left and that was more than fine by him.

He waited close by the platform until he saw a family walking through the brick wall. That was proof enough to him that the book hadn't just been lying about the entrance. He pushed his cart through the hidden platform, only slightly apprehensive about hitting the seemingly sturdy brick wall. He was happy to reach the other side without smashing his face. It was quite ingenious. No muggle would ever dare to try such a thing, and Harry presumed there was magic to prevent it from happening.

He quickly found an empty compartment before the crowd began settling in. He did not want a repeat of Diagon Alley when he and Charlie were recognized and had to spend at least thirty minutes shaking people's hands. He changed into his Hogwarts robes, knowing that at least they looked better than what he had worn to the station. He had just opened his potions book when the door opened and Charlie peeked his head in.

"How'd ya figure out how to get on the platform?" Charlie asked setting his trunk down and hopping into the seat across from Harry. Harry held back a glare, wanting to tell Charlie to leave but refrained from doing so. They had not left the station yet and he couldn't risk Charlie running and telling Petunia and Vernon, no matter how unlikely it was that the Dursleys had stuck around.

"Magic," he replied, turning his page. He smiled at Charlie's undignified face. That word may be banned at the Dursleys but here, here they were here to learn the very thing the Dursleys hated most. Charlie really couldn't complain about his word choice.

"Mind if I sit here? Everywhere else is full?" a redhead peeked his head in this time. Charlie eagerly nodded, making the room instantly.

"Ron Weasley," the redhead introduced himself, proudly puffing his chest out. Harry wanted to roll his eyes but instead went back to reading his book.

"I'm Charlie, Charlie Potter and this is Harry," Charlie replied cheerfully after kicking Harry in the shin slyly so that the newcomer wouldn't see. Harry didn't let out a peep, he was quite use to such behavior.

"Blimey it's true then. The Potter twins really did come this year," Ron spoke rapidly, and as Harry looked up he saw his eyes shining, "Do you both really have the same scars?"

"Sure do," Charlie said, lifting up his bangs to show off the scar but Harry didn't bother to reply. He didn't like the feeling of being gawked at like an animal at the zoo.

"Do you remember what happened?" Ron persisted seemingly unbothered by Harry's lack of interest. Harry closed his book loudly and looked at both of them.

"You know, it's a bit rude to ask people about the night they lost both of their parents," he scowled. He moved himself drawing up his legs so that he was no longer facing across the compartment towards them and instead facing the door.

"Is he always like that?" he heard Ron whisper to Charlie.

"Pretty much, he's always been the miserable sort," Charlie replied, not bothering to whisper at all. Harry ignored them to the best of his ability as they began to whisper back and forth. He was almost relaxed when the door slammed open causing him to stiffen once more and a bushy haired girl walked through.

"Have any of you seen a toad? Neville's lost his," she asked.

"No, but I'd ask a prefect. There are spells that can locate items. It would be easier then barging into every compartment and asking so rudely," Harry suggested, taking out his pen and writing notes in the margins of his book. The girl didn't seem to mind at all his tone and instead stood defiantly in the doorway.

"I know who you are," she said, sniffing her nose slightly. Harry looked back up narrowing his eyes.

"Oh really?" Charlie asked, offering a smile in her direction.

"You're the Potter twins. I've read all about you." the girl crossed her arms, "You are the boys-who-lived. You defeated the Dark Lord."

"Did we? I wasn't aware. Thank you perfectly random stranger for telling me such valued and delightful information," Harry snapped, looking back down at his potions text. He heard some sputtering and the door slammed again.

"You didn't have to be so rude," Charlie chided, glaring at Harry. Harry didn't bother to reply. He knew he had been a tad harsh but his temper had gotten the best of him. He probably shouldn't have lashed out at the poor girl however, as his problem was not with her but instead Charlie's continuing presence. Some time passed as they drew nearer to Hogwarts and the sun began lowering in the sky. Harry was already planning on how to get away quickly to leave Charlie behind once they arrived.

"Harry, I was looking for you," Malfoy entered the compartment with two other boys. Both of which were large and intimidating, looking like they would fit right in with Dudley's gang. Harry tried to think where he had seen the blonde before.

"Oh you're that boy from the robe shop. Draco Malfoy wasn't it?" he asked tilting his head slightly. It seemed like such a long time ago. He heard snickers from the other side of the compartment. He looked over to see it was Ron who was laughing.

"Find my name funny do you? I shouldn't even ask who you are. Second hand robes and red hair can only mean you are a Weasley," Malfoy taunted. Ron turned as red as his hair and dropped his head slightly, his hands clenched into fists.

"Oi! Take that back!" Charlie jumped up quickly standing over Malfoy, being slightly taller. The two larger boys walked behind Charlie and flexed their muscles. Charlie quickly and very wisely made the decision to sit back down.

"Would you like to join us in our compartment?" Draco asked Harry, "It certainly should provide better company."

Harry shrugged, he didn't really want to stay here but he didn't know if he really wanted to go with Draco or not. He looked over at Charlie's furious face and he stood up to grab Hedwig's cage. Anywhere had to be better than staying here with Charlie and his new friend. Especially with that look resting on Charlie's face.

"You can't go with him. Ron says his family is no good," Charlie protested, grabbing Harry's arm hard enough he was sure it left marks. He flinched away at the sudden contact and struggled to wrench his arm free.

"Don't pretend to care about me," he hissed, shoving past Charlie with some force. One of the larger boys grabbed down Harry's trunk from the rack as Harry stormed out. Draco led his way to his own compartment and ushered Harry to sit down. Harry looked around at the piles of sweets, marbles, and books piled on the table. Draco sat next to Harry, picking up some of the sweets.

 _"Curses and Counter-Curses?"_ Harry read one of the books titles.

"Oh that one's mine. Father got it for me for my birthday. We were looking at some of the low level jinxes. You never know when you'll have to start hexing Gryffindors," Draco explained picking up the book and handing it over to Harry. Harry examined it carefully opening up the front cover.

"I saw it in a bookshop but the person I was with wouldn't let me buy it. Said it was full of all kinds of nasty stuff," Harry explained flipping through some of the pages.

"There's worst books then this. This is positively tame compared to some of the ones my father has in his library," Draco laughed looking at the pages over Harry's shoulder. Draco tossed some candy over at him and Harry looked at it carefully inspecting it.

"It won't bite you know."

.~.

"Potter, Charlus," McGonagall called. Harry stifled his laugh as Charlie tripped in front of the whole school on his way up to the small stool. The hat was only on his head for a few seconds before crying out –

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Two redheads sitting at that table began to jump up and down singing- "We got a Potter! We got a Potter!" as Charlie went to take his seat. Ron seemed rather pleased with the result as well, a satisfied smile on his face as the table roared with applause and shouts.

"Knew he'd go to Gryffindor. It's really the best house after all," Ron whispered to Harry. McGonagall cleared her throat loudly causing the chaos to finally die down so that she could continue the Sorting Ceremony.

"Potter, Harald," McGonagall finally called. He made his way through even as the whole Great Hall began whispering-

"He's a bit small isn't he?"

"Gryffindor for sure. Just like his brother."

"Do you really think they defeated the dark lord? I mean come on, they were just babies."

"They don't really look like twins, do they?" -

Harry did his best to ignore them as he sat down on the stool.

"Hmm what's this…quite an interesting mind you have here Mr. Potter. I expected someone more like your brother," the hat said but Harry could tell it wasn't talking out loud.

"Well, I expected a non-talking hat that wasn't going to read my mind," he said quietly so only the hat could hear. A hearty laugh rang through his head.

"Indeed. There's quite a bit of bravery there. Perhaps you are more like your brother then you think."

"I won't go to Gryffindor."

"No you wouldn't quite fit in there. I can see your thirst for knowledge and desperation to set yourself apart, so much so you don't mind the work to get there. A very difficult sort. Very difficult. Either Ravenclaw or Slytherin would suit you well."

The hat still had yet to reach a decision and he could hear the nearby students whispering about a possible hatstall.

"Should it take this long?" he asked, slightly annoyed wondering if he could just stand and choose his own table. The longer he stayed up here the more people would talk.

"Good things happen to those who wait, Mr. Potter. Better be…

SLYTHERIN."

Harry resisted the urge to crumple the hat up into a small ball and instead sat it back down on the stool. Whereas most of the hall clapped for Charlie, and his new house had gone wild; the hall was now silent as Harry stood up.

It seemed like ages but finally there was a scattering of applause from the Slytherin table before the rest of the table joined in. While he couldn't be sure, he thought he had heard a few boos mixed in from the other tables but he walked with his head held high over to Slytherin. He wasn't the first newly minted Slytherin to be booed after all. He wouldn't let it bother him.

"Harry, over here," Draco called pointing to the empty seat next to him. Harry quickly glanced over the rest of the Slytherins, many of them were giving him reassuring smiles. He took a deep breath and walked over to Draco, sitting down. The rest of the sorting passed quickly and soon a feast appeared before them- more food then Harry could have ever imagined.

"Can't say we expected you here, Potter. We assumed you'd be going to Gryffindor like your twin over there," a boy across from them spoke up.

"I'm sorry?" Harry replied more than slightly annoyed. He hated being compared to Charlie. He turned his attention to picking out an assortment of foods. He had never had this much choice in food before, there was some stuff he didn't even recognize, and he wanted to enjoy it and try a bit of everything.

"Leave Harry alone, Nott," Draco warned as he gently corrected Harry's grip on his fork. "Merlin, did you grow up with muggles or something?" he asked Harry. Harry gave a sheepish grin.

"Actually I did," he replied slowly. He was slightly worried at his admission as he had heard all Slytherins despised everything to do with muggles. He may not have engaged in conversation with Weasley but even whispering carried in an enclosed space such as the train compartment. A few people around them paused and stared pointedly at him. Harry shriveled under the sudden attention.

"Well then, I guess I'll just have to teach you some proper manners," Draco replied quickly.

"Don't worry. Despite our reputation, plenty of us are halfbloods and there's even a muggleborn or two. Things are a lot different than they were a decade ago," an older girl from the other side of Draco spoke up. Harry looked over at her.

"Gemma Farley, prefect," she pointed towards the badge on her robes. "Let me know if anyone gives you any trouble."

"Thanks," Harry replied as she smiled at him. She pointed up at the head table.

"That's Professor Snape, he's our head of house. You can go to him too if they get to be too much. Everyone here listens to him," she explained. Harry nodded along before turning his attention back to food.

Harry was thoroughly exhausted by the time they entered the Slytherin common room. He tiredly wondered if all the Slytherin passwords were snake related as another prefect showed them to the common rooms. It couldn't be that secure if that was the case, but he supposed if he ever forgot he could just start saying random snake names until the door opened.

Draco tugged on his robes, removing him from his musings and led him to the dormitories forcibly.

"You completely zoned out during the prefect's speech didn't you?" Draco accused, his hand sitting on his hip. Harry shrugged. He heard bits of it; don't show outsiders the common room, don't sully the great name of Slytherin, don't get caught breaking the rules.

"Here, you prick you finger and touch the name plaque," Draco pricked his finger and smeared the blood on one of the two silver ornate plaques on the door. They were very well made with winding snakes carved into them. Draco's name appeared in neat cursive on it, with the tiny bit of blood seemingly dissolving into the metal. Harry followed his lead and repeated. He didn't have much choice in his roommate, everyone else had already chosen their roommates and settled into their rooms while he had been spacing out. They walked into the room to find their trunks waiting for them.

One wall of their dorm was taken up by large windows looking into the lake, Harry could see faint shadows swimming by in the murky water. Two beds with plush green comforters were settled into the north facing wall, and two writing desks and wardrobes just opposite to the beds. It was quite big, much bigger in fact then Harry had expected for a dorm room.

"Only the best for Slytherin," Draco stated matter of fact.

"If you say so. It's not like we know what the other dorms look like," Harry countered but Draco chose to ignore him. He changed his robes for pajamas as Draco went around the room as if appraising the quality of the space.

"What's it like living with muggles? Father says they are terrible gift-less fools," Draco asked as he begun to change into what looked to be silk pajamas.

"It's okay. Here is definitely better." he replied, squashing down any emotion that dared to flutter across his face, "Not that interesting really."

Draco seemed bored enough with his answer and dropped the subject as they climbed into their respected beds.

"Father bought me a subscription to Seeker Weekly since I am missing the last half of the Quidditch season. We have box season seats to Puddlemere. He knows the team owner," Draco yawned as he settled in. "Who is your favorite team?" he asked Harry.

"I don't have one. Muggles don't watch Quidditch" Harry explained, "so I've never seen a game. I've read books about it though."

Draco shot up in bed with his eyes wide, "That's a travesty! Never seen a game!" he shouted suddenly. Harry held in a snort. "First Hogwarts game you're going. It's not professional Quidditch but it will have to do for now. I'll talk to father to get you a seat for next season's games."

"Er…thanks. I think."

.~.

"Alright firsties, line up. I'm only showing you to each of your classes one time so memorize the way now." Gemma paused looking at Crabbe and Goyle thoughtfully, "Make sure you help some of the others that might struggle for a couple of weeks. Professor Snape really hates it when people lose Slytherin points and no one likes a grumpy potions professor. He really makes you brew the extra smelly and foul tasting ones when you get on his nerves."

"Potter next to me, I don't like the fact you were on the front page this morning. People will be talking," Gemma spoke, staring at the offending paper. To Harry's defense, Charlie was on it too. The Daily Prophet decided that the news of the Boys-Who-Lived sorting was top priority and had a whole special spread about their heroic triumphs. After Draco informed him the Daily Prophet was the most popular newspaper, Harry retorted it must have been a slow news day if the wizarding world was that interested in what house they had been sorted into.

Harry ended up sandwiched between Gemma and Draco, with Crabbe and Goyle flanking them. He was a little annoyed by it but decided not to complain, he had a feeling Gemma didn't recognize no as an answer. They didn't get very far before being stopped by older Slytherins, blocking the way forward.

"Flint, Rosier," Gemma nodded at the two before trying to brush past.

"I don't think so." Flint crossed his arms, flexing his admittedly large muscles.

"We want to talk to Potter," Rosier said, impatiently tapping his fingers near his pocket. Harry wandered why these two wanted to talk to him. He hadn't done anything he could think of to either of them.

He looked up to Gemma who narrowed her eyes, her own wand hand going to her pocket. They were deep in the dungeons, the only teacher that regularly patrolled here was Snape and he was in his rooms brewing before morning classes. Gemma had already warned them about walking alone down here as it was the prime location for upperclassman to get hex happy.

"I'm sorry, he doesn't want to speak to you I'm sure," she pushed Harry and Draco both slightly behind her. Before anyone else could react Gemma had fired two spells and both Flint and Rosier had fallen to the ground clutching their groins.

Gemma smiled calmly, "Perhaps you should go see Madame Pomfrey. You seem to be have some troubles." She swept past them, kicking their wands slightly out of their grasps. "Come along boys and girls, we've got to get you to the Greenhouses. At this rate I'll be late," she stated calmly to the stunned group. Harry felt a push from behind and scurried past the boys who were moaning in pain and cursing them all under their breath.

"What did she do?" Harry whispered to a very pale Draco.

"Stinging hex, to the bollocks I reckon," he whispered back. Harry didn't really know what a stinging hex did but he certainly did not like the sound of it. He made a decision to never get on Gemma's bad side.

The week flew by without any more incidents. Apparently, even the 7th years steered cleared of Gemma if it could be helped. Harry found himself grateful towards the older witch, as Draco explained some Slytherins may want to attack Harry due to their family's ties to the Dark Lord. Harry didn't really think it was all that fair, after all the war had been over for a decade now. The incident seemed to warn off any others though, because no one else had approached Harry with hostile intentions.

Classes seemed to be going well for Harry, he was glad he spent so much time reading up on magical theory the last summer. It seemed important to the spellwork they were learning and he found out through Draco that many of the children had private tutoring before Hogwarts, those whose parents could afford it anyway. By end of his first Transfiguration lesson he had even managed to turn a match into a nice sharp needle. He even earned Slytherin a few points for his accomplishment.

Defense against the Dark Arts was certainly interesting to say the least. The professor, Quirrell, had a terrible stutter which made it difficult to understand him at times but he did give out valuable information. They were currently learning the differences between ghouls, ghosts, and poltergeists. Draco had scoffed at the lessons, but Harry took diligent notes. It seemed like useful information.

"We have double potions with the Griffs today," Zabini announced as they ate breakfast.

"This should be interesting," Nott replied as Harry piled more bacon onto his plate. He looked up from petting Hedwig, who had flown down just to visit.

"Why exactly?" he asked, sneaking Hedwig a piece of bacon.

"Snape hates the Gryffindors," Draco answered as if it were obvious.

"I heard those 3rd year Weasleys already received three weeks of detention in their first potions class," Pansy scrunched her nose up.

Harry decided not to point out that it seemed Snape didn't like Harry much either but then again he was beginning to be convince Snape didn't like much of anything. He once saw Snape take points off a Hufflepuff who was passing by for making too much noise while talking through the corridors. Harry himself then got threatened with detention for staring at the exchange. He was not liking his chances of getting out of his first potions class without a detention. He suddenly didn't feel all that hungry anymore.

"Harry will be my partner of course," Draco announced to the table. Draco turned to Harry, "I'm good at potions. Professor Snape tutored me before Hogwarts."

The rest of the table looked rather impressed but Harry just stared at Draco blankly.

"I guess that's fine," he said finally as Draco kept looking at him expectantly. Hedwig took the opportunity to steal the last of his bacon and fly away.

"You should be thanking Draco. He doesn't have to help you out you know," Pansy glared from across the table.

"Jealousy really does not suit you, Pansy," Theo laughed.

"So you are taking his side then?" Pansy shrieked.

"Really, Pansy darling. Theo does have a point," Daphne said looking up from her letter.

"Well, he did defeat a dark lord as a baby. I don't think we'd have a chance if we made him angry," Blaise shrugged. The other first years nodded their agreement. Pansy just crossed her arms and refused to look at Harry the rest of breakfast.

They were waiting outside of the potions room after Gemma had left them to go on to her own classes. Harry was just beginning to appreciate the quiet that fell when his blissful time of pretending his brother didn't exist came to an erupt end. They could hear the Gryffindors approaching long before they could see them coming. He braced himself.

"Harry-" Charlie said, approaching the group.

"I have nothing to say to you," Harry quickly cut Charlie off. Harry almost missed the slight shifting of the Slytherins that happened that better covered him and blocked Charlie off from coming closer. He did appreciate it though. Of course, the Gryffindors were a common enemy so they would just claim to be doing it for themselves if acknowledging it at all when asked. Charlie was about to open his mouth once more but was cut off by Snape opening the classroom door.

Everyone filed in. Harry didn't have much choice as Draco grabbed his sleeve and dragged him to one of the front desks. Draco had that look in his eye that he did whenever someone mentioned Quidditch and Harry didn't dare argue. Draco begun to vigorously write notes as soon as Snape started speaking. Harry decided to follow Draco's lead after smiling in amusement at Draco's awfully serious face.

"Potter!" Snape called after his introduction.

"Yeah?"  
"Yes, Professor?"

Charlie and then he replied. Snape pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a long silent sigh. Harry knew this didn't bode well for him.

"Gryffindor Potter!" Snape specified, "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

Charlie stared blankly before shrugging, "I don't know."

"Apparently fame doesn't teach you everything then. Slytherin Potter, perhaps you can enlighten us with the answer?" Snape continued, glaring in Harry's direction. Harry shrunk in his seat slightly.

"A sleeping potion, Professor?" he answered rather unsure.

"Are you asking or telling me?" Snape snapped.

"I believe it would be some sort of sleeping potion, Professor," Harry repeated more confidently this time. Snape paused a minute before turning his attention back to Charlie.

"Tell me where I would find a bezoar at?" Snape questioned.

"I don't know," by this time Charlie was starting to turn red, reminding Harry slightly of Vernon. Snape turned and looked at Harry next and motioned at him without saying anything. He was feeling oddly targeted. He was now thankful Gemma had warned him to read over his potions text carefully before class.

"In a goat," he answered.

"And perhaps the Gryffindor Potter could tell me the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane?" Snape questioned Charlie again.

"I don't know! Why don't you ask Hermione? She does," Charlie snapped, pointing at the girl who was all but standing up with her arm raised to the ceiling. That sent a few laughs flying through the room, including on the Gryffindor side.

"If I wanted Granger to answer, I would have asked her. Now sit down," Snape barked. "Slytherin Potter!" he called, turning his attention back to Harry.

"They're the same plant," he answered quickly this time, sure he was right. He remembered reading about them yesterday while he was reviewing over the text per Gemma's suggestion and he was ready for Snape to call on him this time.

"At least one Potter decided it wasn't beneath him to open his textbooks before coming to class. Wormwood and asphodel make a powerful sleeping draught called The Draught of the Living Dead. A bezoar is found more specifically in the stomach of a goat. Wolfsbane and monkshood is indeed the same plant. He failed to mention that it is also referred to as aconite, however." Snape paused, staring down the class, "Well, why aren't you writing that down!"

The rest of class went more smoothly for Harry after that. Snape was busy breathing down Charlie's neck and the rest of the Gryffindors. Draco actually was adept of potions and took the lead, delegating the tasks evenly. He was even able to explain some of the things Harry had been confused about when he had read the book. In fact, their potion turned out decent enough that Snape had praised it to the whole class. Harry was proud of what he had accomplished despite having initially dreaded potions class.

Harry was filling a vial with a sample of their potion when a violent hissing sound filled the room. Draco pulled Harry up onto his stool. He looked around confused until he saw the potion spreading quickly across the floor. One of the Gryffindors, Longbottom he thought was the boy's name, had made a mistake while brewing causing the potion to eat away at the cauldron.

The Slytherins left potions in good spirits despite the exploding cauldron and the fact Crabbe and Goyle had been escorted to the hospital wing to get sorted out after the potion splashed on them. They had been ensured that the two would be fine after a trip to Madame Pomfrey.

The Slytherin first years had managed to gain a few points while Gryffindor lost quite a few. Harry thought some of the faults Snape found were rather unfair, but he didn't dare speak up about it, afraid to draw Snape's ire once again. Having survive his first potions class without much incident, Harry felt that he was slowly growing more comfortable with being at Hogwarts. The air that filled the castle felt warm and inviting, almost as if it were embracing him at times.

* * *

Author's Note: Thank you everyone for the kind reviews.

Some parts of this chapter may be similar to passages in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. All credit to J.K. Rowling in this case.

I do not have a beta reader- all content is self edited. If you see a mistake I missed please feel free to point it out.


	3. Chapter 2

**Year 1**

Harry let his fingers run over the hanging fabric. He debated if he should even leave his room today. He had bought several robes on a whim while in Diagon Alley, but he hadn't dared let them leave his wardrobe yet. During the week, he had just lounged in his Hogwarts robes. He had seen some of the other robes his yearmates had been wearing, and they were much nicer then what he had picked up off the shelf. Draco seemed to have an endless supply of flowing silk and other fine materials tailored specifically for him that he flaunted whenever he could.

Harry hesitated letting his hands linger over the fabric. They would certainly think him odd if he dressed in his school robes for the weekend and his clothes from the Dursleys were definitely no good. He would be a laughing stock for sure if he dared to step out in any of Dudley's old clothing. The knot in his stomach grew tighter as he dressed and headed into the common room. He tugged slightly on the new robes, feeling quite out of place as he rubbed his neck with his other hand.

Instead of scoffing like Harry thought he would, Draco merely rolled his eyes. "Merlin, it doesn't even take my mother that long to pick her outfit. We're going to miss breakfast."

Harry felt relief wash over him and followed Draco to the Great Hall for breakfast. If Draco didn't complain about his robe then no one else was likely to- he had the highest quality standards. They didn't come close to missing breakfast in fact, despite Draco's lamenting on the way there.

"Did you see the notice?" Blaise asked them both as they sat down. Harry shook his head.

"Flying lessons are going to start. Thursday. With Gryffindor," Theo elaborated. Harry held back a groan. He had hoped the only class he would have to deal with Charlie would be Potions, there he could count on Snape discouraging any bad behavior from the Gryffindors.

"Excellent, it's a shame they won't let us bring our own brooms. Father says the school brooms are old and barely flyable," Draco stabbed into his eggs with some force.

"Isn't your father on the school board? Shouldn't he be able to fix that?" Daphne asked, with a smirk. She often liked to provoke Draco, Harry had noticed. Especially when Draco began mentioning his father, which was frequent.

"So is your father" Draco sneered "and I don't see him doing anything about them either."

Daphne flipped her hair and went back to talking to Tracey, ignoring Draco completely. Which only served to irritate Draco further.

"That girl is going places," Gemma said as she walked by, playfully ruffling Harry's hair. Harry tried to flatten it out without any luck. Daphne flashed a rare smile at Gemma who winked back at her.

"What just happened?" Theo asked, confused.

Gemma laughed merrily as she continued further down the table, leaving the boys looking at each other in confusion. Harry quickly finished his breakfast, as the others began to talk about flying, Quidditch, and the upcoming flying lessons. Harry didn't have much to offer in way of conversation about those things. He still didn't fully understand Quidditch after all.

Harry went walking around the courtyard after breakfast instead, to enjoy the somewhat sunny weather. He had insisted on going alone, despite protests from more than one person. He felt suffocated at times, unused to the attention and the thick atmosphere of magic that hung over the school and it had been his first opportunity to escape it all.

It seemed he wasn't the only one who decided to enjoy the decent weather as many students were lounging around, so Harry headed towards a more secluded part of the grounds. He walked around for a while before he found himself a tree to sit underneath, enjoying the breeze as he slowly threaded his finger through the grass. Nature had a magic all of its own, and he enjoyed the solid connection to the earth. He was almost dozing off when a voice awoke him.

"Oi, Harry."

Harry opened his eyes to look up only to see Charlie headed towards him. He wondered what his chances of running away were. He plotted possible escape roots, but Charlie was already too close for him to slip by and be on his way.

"What do you want," Harry asked, standing up and brushing off his robes.

"My Gameboy is broke, it won't turn on. What did you do to it?" Charlie accused, looking rather angry.

"I told you. The magic around here eats away at electronics. Can't you feel it in the air? In the walls? It's not good for muggle technology to be surrounded by," Harry explained, feeling oddly vindicated. He did warn him to leave it at home after all. Charlie huffed turning colors but then seem to notice something.

"Where did you get those," Charlie pointed at the robes Harry was wearing, now sounding very angry.

"I bought them."

"You look like one of them," Charlie wrinkled his nose. Harry let out a deep sigh but Charlie wasn't done and continued with his voice raising in volume, "Uncle Vernon works hard to put clothes on you, you should be more thankful."

Harry looked at Charlie with his mouth ajar. Surely Charlie couldn't call the rags that made up his muggle wardrobe clothes?

"Yeah I don't think so," Harry replied filled with sudden confidence at the sight of Gemma heading towards them. Harry smirked knowingly.

"Wipe that look off your face," Charlie commanded, clenching his fist.

"Or what? You gonna make me?" Harry challenged, crossing his arms. "You don't have the guts you coward. Dudley isn't here, and I don't think you know how to use your wand either- too busy acting like a filthy muggle like our so called family. They'll still see you as a freak you know," Harry hissed slowly approaching Charlie. He knew what was going to happen next, not that it made it hurt any less when Charlie began to throw punches.

It only lasted a moment until Gemma had gotten close enough to knock Charlie off but by that time they had both fallen to the ground and Charlie was holding Harry down easily due to their size difference. He had known before he started the fight the result, beating up Charlie hadn't been his goal.

"Potter! How dare you," Gemma shrieked raising her wand towards Charlie before shaking her head and stuffing it back into her robes. She helped Harry back to his feet and grabbed his face, moving it side to side.

"H-he started it!" Charlie sputtered.

"Very likely. He's the one with the bleeding lip and blackening eye. You are coming with me to McGonagall's office," Gemma scowled. Harry wiped some of the blood off his face with his sleeve.

"I don't have to listen to you," Charlie spat.

"Actually you do, I am a prefect and you will start walking now," Gemma spat back. By now a crowd was gathering and Charlie wisely dropped his head.

McGonagall peered over her glasses at both of them, "Fighting is not tolerated at Hogwarts even between siblings, especially between siblings."

"Harry did not raise his hands or wand towards Charlie. I witness the whole thing. And I never heard Harry say anything about muggles. In fact, Harry often speaks fondly of his family. You can see why I doubt Charlie's claim that Harry called them filthy?" Gemma defended. Harry held back a snort at that, he definitely never even mentioned the Dursleys, let alone fondly. He tried his best to look sad and broken.

"You can't trust her! She's a lying snake!" Charlie protested, abruptly standing up.

"Sit, back down Mr. Potter! Miss. Farley is a well-respected student and prefect. Over her time here, she has shown nothing but excellent behavior," McGonagall frowned causing Charlie to sit back down with his head hung down low.

"I was just trying to relax when Charlie got angry thinking that I had broken his Gameboy, that's a muggle electronic thing he brought. I told him the magic around Hogwarts would break it before we left our Aunt and Uncle's house but he didn't believe me. I never even touched it but Charlie insisted I must have done something. Then he just started hitting me," Harry let a couple tears loose to really sell his story.

"Your brother is right, Mr. Potter. Muggle things do not work at Hogwarts, he did nothing to it. I am absolutely appalled at your behavior today. I will be taking 25 points from Gryffindor, and you will be serving detention with Mr. Filch. I do hope you've learned your lesson," McGonagall dismissed them.

"Come on, I have the things in my room to heal up your face. No sense in going to Madame Pomfrey," Gemma led him back down to the dungeons once they had reentered Slytherin territory she stopped and turned to him. "So what did you really say?" she asked with a raise eyebrow.

"Something I knew that would get him to hit me," Harry answered refusing to elaborate.

"Well, you didn't lose Slytherin any points so I guess its fine. No more fighting though, I'm not going to be there every time," Gemma ruffled his hair and she said the password to the common room door.

"Merlin! Harry what happened?" Draco called out spotting Harry's still bloody lip.

"Charlie. It's really not so bad," Harry shrugged. "He lost Gryffindor a bunch of points and got detention," he explained at Draco's horrified look.

"Don't worry, I'll fix him up," Gemma rolled her eyes.

.~.

Charlie seemed determined to track down Harry, while Harry did his best disappearing act anytime Charlie would come close. He had no intentions of sticking around long enough to find out what his brother wanted and becoming a punching bag again. He had only provoked Charlie to get him in trouble in the first place. He didn't want to make a habit of it. Charlie would often be found glaring across the Great Hall at Harry at every meal time. Luckily it seemed being in Gryffindor did not give Charlie enough guts to come to the Slytherin table.

Harry was successfully avoiding Charlie with the help of the other Slytherins. They were happy to cover for him, even if it was just due to general dislike of Gryffindor that ran rampant in Slytherin. Harry didn't mind so much, even if it meant he would end up helping the others with DADA or Transfiguration homework. Nothing was free in Slytherin after all, especially not help.

It was fairly easy to avoid Charlie in fact, until their first flying lesson with the Gryffindors. It wasn't so bad until Longbottom had the misfortune to fall off his broom and break his wrist. Madame Hooch had to leave to take him to the hospital wing, giving strict instructions for them to stay grounded.

Harry content to chat quietly with Daphne about the upcoming charms assignment, she really was the best at charms out of all the Slytherins. They were discussing to potential application of the lumos charm in a duel when Draco decided to pick a fight with both Weasley and Charlie. Before anyone could stop them, both Draco and Charlie were up in the air chasing after each other.

"You have to stop them!" Granger cried pointing at Harry, "He's your brother!"

Harry looked up to see Charlie wobbling unsteady in the air and the rest of the class avoiding eye contact with him. It looked as though Charlie could plummet any minute and it was only looking worst by the minute. It didn't help matters that Draco was flying circles around Charlie, and Charlie was attempting to keep up. Harry couldn't help but think Charlie was an idiot, Draco had practically grew up on a broomstick. It was stupid of him for even hopping on a broom after Draco.

"Is he? I'd forgotten. Thank you though for reminding me," he replied nonchalantly checking out his fingernails. The Slytherins behind him laughed merrily. He felt someone tugging on his sleeve.

"Harry, that idiot is about to fall and kill himself. Draco is going to get expelled for taunting him up there," Daphne whispered furiously. Harry sighed wearily and looked back up at the two. He had never flown either but they looked to him to fix everything. He mounted his broom and steadily rose into the air. It didn't seem as hard as it looked, he thought as he got use to the sensation.

"I'm too small to catch him, can a couple of you help?" Harry asked. Blaise and Millie grabbed their brooms and joined him. They all darted off just as Charlie lost control of his broom. They stayed together in a formation and outstretched their arms to catch the idiot as he began falling.

"H-help!" Charlie cried, digging his fingernails into Harry and Blaise's arm. Millie looked at him in disgust and they descended, each of them gripping Charlie to keep him from falling. The three of them looked at each other and grinned, stopping about a foot from the ground and let go of Charlie at the same time, allowing him to drop with a thud.

Draco landed nearby gripping the other broom that Charlie had fallen off of.

"Idiot couldn't even stay in the air at all. Too bad they didn't let you just fall like Longbottom. I'd think even Madame Pomfrey would have issues fixing a broken head," Draco sneered. Charlie jumped off of the ground and advanced towards Draco-

"Potters, Zabini, Malfoy, Bulstrode!" a voice screeched out. Color drained from everyone's faces as they all turned to see McGonagall racing towards them. "In all my years- I never…"

"But Professor-" Weasley attempted to interject.

"No buts! I have never seen such a foolish stunt pulled. Flying without supervision is strictly prohibited to first years. 20 points from both Gryffindor and Slytherin, Mr. Potter and Mr. Malfoy," she peered over her glasses at the two who started the whole thing. "However, I will award Slytherin 10 points for the actions of the other Mr. Potter, Miss. Bulstrode, and Mr. Zabini. I commend them for coming to the aid of a fellow student and their quick thinking."

She pulled out a pocket watch and checked the time before turning back to the students. "You're flying lesson is over. You best be thankful Madame Hooch did not catch you playing around as such, as she would be calling for your expulsion right now. Charlie Potter, I better not be catching you misbehaving again- this makes two incidents already. Everyone back to the castle," McGonagall lectured, waving her wand so that all the brooms lined up neatly against a nearby wall of the castle.

Everyone began the trudge back to their respected common rooms. "Why didn't you say you were a good flyer, Harry?" Theo asked as they separated from the Gryffindors.

"That's the first time I've ever flown a broom," he replied, missing the shocked looks that were exchanged.

"There's no way, you looked like you've been flying for years," Theo accused, stopping in his tracks. Harry rolled his eyes and just kept moving as the descended down they stairs to go deeper into the dungeons.

"Why would I lie about that? Nothing to gain by it. I didn't exactly have a lot of chances to fly a broomstick while living with muggles," Harry snorted loudly.

"Harry!" a voice called. They all turned to see Charlie running to catch up to the group.

"You're a little loss aren't you?" Harry asked narrowing his eyes slightly. They were getting deep into Slytherin territory. The rest of the Slytherins looked ready to pounce any moment, but Harry knew they were hanging back to give him a chance to deal with the intruder. Not that Harry had the heart to stop them if they did go on a hexing spree.

"Harry, please can we talk? You must have some good in you still, you saved me from falling. I know you really care for me," Charlie whined, his eyes wide.

"Millie and Blaise saved you too, but I highly doubt they care all that much about you," Harry retorted. Given the looks on their respected faces, Harry thought it safe to believe his assumption was correct.

Charlie scrunched up his face and stomped his foot before blurting out, "Fine! I didn't want to say this in front of everyone but you leave me no choice. You can't hang out with Malfoy, he's rotten news. His father is a death eater! He's going to turn you evil."

The corridor stilled as everyone stared at Charlie in shock. Harry laughed merrily, it echoing through the dungeons. 'You can't be serious? Let me correct you. His father was a death eater and was cleared on all charges. Draco told me that several days ago and I've already fact checked his story. Everything I do, is of my own choice," Harry glared hard at Charlie daring him to keep speaking. "Besides that, Draco is not his father. You are just as rude and judgmental as Vernon."

"Uncle Vernon is nice!" Charlie defended, "Ron says his whole family is no good! That his mother is no better than a death eater and that he is going to grow up to be one too!"

"You righteous moron! Both you and Weasley need to watch your mouths," Harry hissed, his fingers twitching towards his wand. Draco too seemed beyond furious.

Charlie's face began to turn colors. "It's too late for you. He's already got you corrupted. You're nothing but a-" Charlie spat, lowering his hand into his robes. A few gasps of shock ran through the small group but Harry was more concerned on disarming Charlie before he could do any harm.

Harry drew his wand and quickly cast the trip jinx and tongue sticking curse towards Charlie in rapid succession both hitting their mark. He mentally thanked Gemma for her quick lessons on how to defend himself. He quickly stuffed his wand back into his pocket the second he heard approaching footsteps. Only one teacher patrolled down here and he certainly didn't want to be caught by Snape of all people.

"Dare I ask what is going on here?" Snape questioned, swooping over to them.

"Gryffindor Potter was trying to sneak into our common room. He tripped and fell, and we turned around to see him there," Daphne replied, with a calm smile. Snape raised an eyebrow and Harry was sure he didn't believe her given that Charlie had stood up and frantically started shaking his head. Charlie pointed to his mouth but it seemed Snape did not care about his predicament.

"5 points from Gryffindor for sneaking about. Everyone back to their common rooms now," Snape ordered. Everyone scampered to do so except for Charlie who was still standing there trying to argue without much success, given the fact his tongue was still stuck.

"That was impressive," Millie said once they were out of earshot of Snape. Everyone nodded in agreement. Harry was quiet the rest of the way to the common room and quickly went to his room as they arrived. He sat on his bed and did his best to calm himself down, but a wicked grin spread across his face betraying his true thoughts.

Charlie seemed to finally get the hint that Harry wanted nothing to do with him. Well, it took a few more well-placed hexes to finally get his point across. He was glad to focus his energy back onto classes as they only got harder. Before Harry knew it, it was already Halloween. They had all been merrily enjoying the feast when Professor Quirrell rushed into the room screaming about a troll in the dungeons.

As the rest of the school filed out to go to their respected common rooms as instructed, the Slytherins and Hufflepuffs only looked at each other. Neither group felt comfortable enough to move when the last sighting was reported possibly very near to their common rooms. All the teachers had filed out to deal with the threat as well, leaving the students wondering if Dumbledore had gone off his rocker. The prefects looked at each other a nodded, seemingly coming to an silent understanding and gathering into a group. No one dared move other than staring at the door nervously.

After a short conference, the prefects gathered at the head of each of their tables.

"First through third years, please move towards the end of the table furthest from the door. Resume eating," Gemma instructed. They all got up and moved according to her instructions, nearby the Hufflepuffs were doing the same. "If the troll gets in everyone that can, cast a stunning or cutting curse. If you don't know those just hit it with your best spell. Take care not to hit anyone else, just the troll."

Not many had an appetite given the situation. The prefects and several 7th years were standing guard closest towards the doors- their wands out and ready. The whole hall was silent except for the occasional scraping of silverware.

They had long finished eating when the door of the Great Hall finally opened. Almost every student jumped and pointed their wands to the door.

"Lower your wands this instance! What are you still doing here?" McGonagall spoke shrilly. "Your instructions were to return to your common rooms."

Most lowered their wands warily.

"Are you kidding me?" Gemma screeched, "Have all the teachers around here gone batty?"

"I will not be spoken to in such a matter, Miss. Farley. 50 points will be taken from Slytherin and Hufflepuff for failure to follow directions in a dangerous situation," McGonagall stood steadfast even as shouts of disbelief and protests rung throughout the hall. Harry himself was glaring daggers at the deputy headmisteress, even though he somewhat liked her most of the time. The prefects rushed to the front trying to explain the situation.

Snape and Sprout walked through the doors in midst of the disorder.

"There you are children, come along I'll take you back to the common room," Sprout said cheerfully. "My, what's wrong?" Sprout asked.

"Professor McGonagall took 50 points!" a Hufflepuff prefect informed her, "Off of each house!"

"Why would she do that?" Sprout asked, staring at McGonagall.

"They failed to follow the Headmaster's instructions to return to their common rooms," McGonagall said sternly.

"It's no wonder. Did you forget where their common rooms are?" Sprout asked, her voice hitching. McGonagall stilled and her face turned bright red.

"I h-hadn't realized in the chaos," she stammered out.

"Indeed, they were doing the best they could in the situation. As you can see they put the younger students further down to protect them should a breech in the doors happen," Snape finally spoke up. "Had they returned to their common rooms, they may have run into the troll and we would have more injuries to tend to."

McGonagall straightened out and dusted off some lint from her skirts. "I rescind my previous statements and offer my apologies. The troll has been dealt with. Mr. Potter, if you could come with me please? The rest of you off to bed, the curfew is still intact."

As the still grumbling students took their leave, Harry waved forward the others as they gave him questioning looks. As far as he was aware he hadn't done anything.

"Come along Mr. Potter," McGonagall said as she sped forward. Harry had a difficult time trying to keep up with her. He was confused the whole time as McGonagall did not elaborate on where they were going. She stopped in front of the Hospital Wing and turned to Harry.

"Your brother and his friends decided that going after a fully grown mountain troll was a wonderful idea," she finally explained.

"Did he die?" Harry asked so quickly it must have sounded hopeful because McGonagall frowned down at him.

"By some miracle, no he did not. We found and subdued the mountain troll before it was able to grievously harm them," she replied looking very displeased. Could she really blame him for asking? He certainly did not want to be here now he knew it was about Charlie. "Your brother often confides in me, Mr. Potter. He is upset with this rift between the two of you."

"I'm sorry Professor, but that is strictly family business. No offense, but Charlie doesn't care much about me nor him I. Is that all? I still need to finish my potions essay," he frowned, staring at the wooden doors. "I appreciate the concern," he added at the pain stricken face on the professor at his words. "Look, is he seriously injured?"

"No, he is cut and bruised but he will make a full recovery," McGonagall answered softly.

"Okay, so then why am I here?"

"I thought you would like to see him?" McGonagall questioned.

"Am I required to?"

"No, I suppose not."

Harry gave her one last look before slipping past her. "I'm sorry Professor. I don't expect you to understand," he said quietly.

.~.

Harry maintained there was something odd about Professor Quirrell. While he enjoyed the class and felt like he had learned plenty from the odd professor, the more time he spent in the class the more he felt as though Quirrell was hiding something. It struck him odd that Quirrell had been running around the dungeons instead of at the feast on Halloween. Not to mention the times in class when he stopped stuttering every word and became thoughtful when someone posed an interesting question, before heading straight back into stuttering mode. The magic that permeated the room also felt quite dark, and slightly sick. That was weird enough even if he ignored the fact the Professor seemed to study Harry whenever he thought Harry wasn't looking.

"I can't wait to go home for the holidays," Draco spoke up as they walked through the grounds, breaking Harry abruptly away from his thoughts. He recast the warming charm on his cloak as the wind picked up. Learning them was a Slytherin rite of passage to help ease the cold of the dungeons.

"Hmm? That's nice," Harry replied halfheartedly interested as he refastened his cloak. He knew Draco didn't care whether or not he was interested after all, he would just keep talking.

"Mother and Father always wake up early with me, and the house elves make hot coco and after presents we go through a stroll through the grounds. Then…" Draco stopped and raised an eyebrow. "What in Merlin's name is your brother and his twits doing?"

Harry looked up to see what Malfoy was talking about, "Oh I heard them talking in class. They are visiting the groundskeeper. They do it often apparently."

Draco looked thoughtfully at the three Gryffindors until Harry gently pushed him along. His fingers were turning to ice even with the gloves and warming charms.

Once the holidays began, Harry was left alone in the first year dorms. All of his Slytherin yearmates had gone home to their families. That was unquestionably not an option for him so he had signed up to stay. He spent some of his time with Gemma who had remained at Hogwarts to study for her OWLs along with a few older Slytherins. They didn't seem to mind him tagging along as he was quiet and didn't bother them much.

Much to his surprise his brother had stayed for the holidays as well instead of returning to the Dursleys. He had initially wondered about this turn of events until he realized there was a planned trip to Marge's, and not even Charlie liked her or her dogs. Harry hardly saw hide or hair of Charlie though, it seemed him and his Weasley had been spending much of their break in the library.

Harry had never had such a fun Christmas Eve. The Slytherins had thrown a, slightly against the rules, party for the ones that had remained for break. They had pushed together several of the tables and laid out all kinds of food and they were all milling around enjoying themselves. Someone even had out a radio which was playing wizarding stations.

Harry was looking over the food table, planning on grabbing some snacks and retreat by the fire to read a book. He spotted something quiet odd at the table however.

"I had my mum send us some muggle snacks and sweets. The more stuffy purebloods just think it's some American wizard food," Gemma explained chuckling at his astonishment at the sight of potato crisps in a bowl. "Here, I had the house elves make some treacle tart. I know it's your favorite," she smiled getting him a plate and loading it up for him.

"Thank you," Harry replied taking his spoils to his seat cheerfully. Someone handed him a glass full of a dark red liquid that looked suspiciously like wine. He smelled it before wrinkling his nose. It was definitely wine.

Gemma appeared out of nowhere and took it out of his hands. "Who gave him wine? Are you stupid, he's a first year!" she scolded but no one fessed up. She sighed before handing him something else to drink. "Here, its butterbeer. Alcohol free. Don't take drinks from people, I know for a fact some of them have firewhiskey going around," she explained.

Harry ended up nestled into Gemma's lap while she gossiped with her yearmates. She had insisted after more people tried to slip him alcohol through the night. He protested but he kind of enjoyed the attention so he didn't struggle to get out of her grasp. He didn't really listen them talk, instead choosing to read his book, _Hexes & Jinxes for Young Witches & Wizards, _and earmarking the ones he wanted to learn.

He awoke on Christmas morning to being gently shaken awake. He was confused as to who was in his room until he opened his eyes and realized they were in the common room still. He suddenly remembered they had pushed all the sofas near the fireplace and dragged out blankets and comforters. They had a sleepover in the large common room instead of returning to their respected dorms.

"Finally awake?" Gemma asked with a smile as he cocooned himself in his blankets and sat up. He looked around the room. Pucey and Rosier were opening their presents in the opposite corner with some of the other Slytherins. "Here, I found your presents for you," Gemma said handing him a small pile of them.

"I have presents?" he asked in wonder. He doubted the Dursleys had sent them, the most he every got from them was Vernon's lumpy old socks. Gemma frowned a minute, her eyebrows furrowing.

"Of course you do," she replied ruffling his hair. He gave her a slight smile before carefully beginning to open up the presents. He got a lot of sweets from his yearmates, a book from Gemma and some of the older Slytherins he didn't know well, and a wizard's chess set from Draco who thought it was a shame he didn't have his own.

Harry detached the letter from his very last package and began to read.

"Mr. Potter,

As per our earlier correspondence, the items in question have been recovered. The tombs were returned to the family vault. However, it is Gringrotts policy not to store invisibility cloaks due to their nature and possibility of misplacement. As such, I have attached the item to this letter for your safe keeping.

I also write to tell you I have received your solstice greetings, and reiterate that you are indeed a very strange wizard. I find myself not entirely bloodthirsty at the thought of the recent promotion you have orchestrated.

 _Griphook_

Gringrotts

Keeper of Potter Accounts."

Gemma looked over and read the paper, "That's pleasant for a goblin," she noted. Harry peeked inside the package to ensure it was indeed there. "Those are against the rules, but as long as I don't see you misusing it I don't mind," she explained with a raised eyebrow. "Although I'm curious as to how you got your hands on one, they are very rare."

"It belonged to my father. After I found out my parents' house was taken over by the ministry, thanks to Draco, I gained permission to recover their belongings which had been cataloged in November of 1981. There were some things missing, and the goblins were more than happy to find them… for a price," Harry shrugged. "I doubt it even still works as old as it is. I just wanted it for the principle. I don't like thieves."

Gemma nodded in understanding. He thanked her for her gift and made his escape, as Warrington entered the room and Gemma became rather occupied. He sat his gifts on his bed and stared at the cloak. He knew the charms had probably worn off long ago, but he had been upset when he had found some of his parents' items missing- including their wands.

Harry walked over to Draco's large mirror and threw the cloak over his shoulders. He was astonished to find that the cloak still worked perfectly well. He was curious of the maker considering most charms on invisibility cloaks wore off in a few years. He wondered if the goblins had just given him a fake to pacify him, but then he realized they would have charge much more for a fake as they would have had to procure it. He ran his fingers over it before folding it up and putting it safely in his trunk.

Harry spent the remainder of his time wandering the empty hallways and exploring the castle while he could. He was somewhere on the third floor staring at a large portrait of Merlin and Morgana when he walked into someone with a thud. He recoiled backwards until he finally steadied himself enough to see who he ran into.

"Professor Quirrel! I'm so sorry, I didn't see you," he apologized immediately, hesitantly brushing off the dust from his robes. He felt a small spike in magic around the professor causing his hand to freeze and his breath to catch.

"Harry Potter. You seem to be out of bounds," Quirrell replied. Harry forced himself to look up only to meet blood red eyes. That was strange, Quirrell's eyes had never been that shade before.

"Professor Dumbledore merely said it was out of bounds to those who don't wish a painful death. That doesn't really include anyone who does want to die a painful death. Correct?" he asked, tilting his head. A low chuckle responded and he forced his head back down as the magic swirled around them.

"Only a true Slytherin would pick up on that particular nuance. You are certainly nothing like your brother," Quirrell replied, lifting Harry's head up with his hand. He brushed Harry's bangs aside to reveal the lightning bolt scar. It made his scar burn slightly but Harry found he couldn't move until long after Quirrell had left.

He didn't dare speak about the incident in the corridor to anyone. Quirrell returned to his old stuttering self and save for a dragon incident Draco stumbled across, the rest of the school year passed uneventfully. Harry was certain he had done well on his exams. Even Snape approved of his forgetfulness potion he turned in.

He was returning from the library late at night, trying to figure out if there was any books he wanted to get for himself at the bookstore in Diagon when a wand was suddenly pressed into his back.

"Are you sure about this Charlie?" Granger asked, nervously shifting from foot to foot.

"He needs to see that Slytherins are no good. We have to teach him the right way. He'll listen when he sees Snape trying to steal the stone," Charlie explained as they snuck through the hallways. Harry remained silent and just went along with them. Granger was scary with a wand and he was outnumbered. He could only hope a professor stumbled across them before they made it to wherever the destination was. The trio wasn't making much sense.

"Can we even trust the snake?" Weasley asked as they cleared the flying key room.

"I got the key didn't I? I think you are all bonkers, but hey I don't want to be stuck down here so I'm not going to sabotage you," Harry defended. No one else argued about his presence even as Weasley went down to the chess set.

"It's not dead is it?" Charlie asked as they stepped around the troll.

"Of course it is, the floor is soaked in blood I doubt it's just napping," Harry rolled his eyes. Harry stood around as Granger tried to solve the potions riddle in the next room. "Why are we even here?" Harry asked Charlie as they stood to the side.

"Snape is trying to steal the Philosopher's Stone," Charlie explained again. "It's being stored here and we have to stop him."

"But why. Even if that's true, shouldn't you have told a professor?" Harry asked, crossing his arms.

"We did. She didn't believe us," Charlie spat.

"You tried one professor and when they didn't believe you, you just decided you had to be the hero?" Harry rubbed his arm after Charlie punched him and shut his mouth again.

"This is the right one. There's only enough for one person. Charlie you'll have to go. Harry and I will go get help," Granger handed Charlie the vial who downed it and went through the flames.

"Come on now," Granger insisted trying to pull Harry along. Harry had enough of the farce and waited until her back was turn before casting a sleeping charm on her. She hit the floor and soon was snoring.

He walked over the potion and picked up the one Granger had sit back down, it had refilled already. He downed it and walked through the flames.

"Harry Potter, you join us at last. I'm afraid your brother did not stay conscious enough to welcome you," Quirrell greeted not turning away from the large ornate mirror that took up most of the room. "What's that? Excellent thinking of the charm on the girl. I disabled all of Dumbledore's wards that would alarm him. He should be none the wiser to tonight's events. Especially with your help."

"You aren't really Professor Quirrell are you?" Harry asked, "Your magic feels different now."

Quirrell turned and looked at him, an eyebrow slightly raised. He swept over to Harry, placing his hands on Harry's shoulder and guided him to the mirror. Quirrell's hands did not leave their spot.

"What do you see?"

Harry blinked confused. It was a mirror after all, shouldn't that answer be self-explanatory? He paused a minute before lifting his hand gingerly towards the mirror. He hadn't noticed it before due to Quirrell's aura had overshadowed it, but the mirror felt ancient and called to him. He was surprised when his fingers passed through and gripped onto something rough and jagged. He recoiled his fingers and was surprised to a see a small blood red stone sitting in his hand.

He glanced at the mirror as the image shifted and he saw himself standing above a dead body. He vaguely recognized the bloating corpse covered in maggots as Vernon. His eyes darted to the top of the mirror at the writing.

"I show your heart's desire," he mumbled looking at the grotesque body. Was that really what his heart wanted most?'

"The stone. Give it to me," Quirrell demanded. Harry handed it over after ripping his eyes away from the mirror.

"It's yours," he replied. He wasn't surprised when he saw Quirrell's wand pointed at him. Before he knew it, he found himself back in his dormitories wondering how he had gotten down here again. He wondered if it had all been a dream.

The only evidence he had that it was reality was that Quirrell had disappeared from Hogwarts without a trace and his brother had another stay in the hospital wing. That and Dumbledore had rewarded some last minute points to Gryffindor for special services and stole Slytherin's house cup victory. The Slytherins were solemn on their way home after feeling their victory stolen from them in front of the entire school.

"What are you doing for your summer holidays?" Draco asked on the train ride back to London.

"Not much I assume," Harry replied. Draco began to talk rapidly about the Quidditch games he had planned on attending that summer, as well as a trip to France with his mother. Harry nodded at all the right moments as Draco prattled on, as he replayed his interactions with Quirrell in his mind. The man was certainly a mystery and he wondered why he had wanted the stone- perhaps it was valuable? Hedwig cooed comfortingly from her cage above and he smiled up at her.

They disembarked the train and Harry found himself being dragged across the platform. "You must meet Father and Mother," Draco started as he led Harry over to them.

"You must be Harry," Narcissa smiled slightly. Lucius nodded in his direction.

"Thank you for the sweets, ma'am. It's very nice to meet you," Harry replied.

"Come along, Draco. We have no time to waste. My apologies, Mr. Potter but we must be going," Lucius started looking at his pocket watch. Harry waved goodbye to Draco and begrudgingly found Charlie to follow him out to the Dursleys' car.

* * *

Author's Note: A few people were asking about pairings.

I have not decided whether or not to pair Harry up with someone.

Most of the plot is outlined but any romances is an issue I've been back and forth on.

Remember that my work is NOT beta-tested. Everything is self-edited. If you spot a mistake feel free to point it out.

Thank you for the follows,favorites, and reviews!


	4. Chapter 3

Warning: Mentions of child abuse.

 **Year 2**

Harry had never been more bored in his life, everything seemed mundane and dead compared to the vibrancy of Hogwarts. Charlie and Dudley had gone back to being thick as thieves, and Harry was still being treated as if he had a contagious disease. He spent most of his days along with Petunia working on what chores she had come up with for the day, wishing desperately that he could work on his homework instead. Except that Vernon had locked away all of their school things in the cupboard under the stairs.

Harry was glad he had sent Hedwig with Draco so that she could enjoy Malfoy Manor's owlery otherwise he was sure she would be locked up too. She still visited bringing letters in the dead of night, long after everyone had gone to sleep, but he knew it wasn't safe for her here. Not that Charlie's precious cat would ever get such mistreatment, Harry was covered by scratches and had already been tripped down the stairs twice by the demon. If anything it only endeared the cat to Petunia.

Harry decided they were something odd about Petunia as he spent more time around her. It took a couple of weeks to realize just why that was, until it suddenly hit him; she had magic, not strong but there it was just under the surface. It felt repressed and untrained- wild and longing to be free. A smirk grew on his face and he stopped folding the laundry. A plan quickly formed in his head, it was reckless but he thought it just might work.

"What are you looking at boy," Petunia glared.

"I think you should get my school books out of the cupboard," Harry replied sweetly.

"Why on heaven would I do that?"

"Well, I guess I could just tell Uncle Vernon that you're a witch. I can feel it you know. I never noticed it before but now I do. Just because you don't use it doesn't really change the fact you do have magic."

"H-how did you…"

"I don't mind keeping it a secret, as long as I can do my homework to preoccupy my time or else who knows what will slip out of my mouth. Just my books will do, I'll even let you keep my wand," Harry stated to a shell-shocked Petunia. He left the room leaving her staring at the empty space he once occupied. He had no idea if his gamble would pay off or lead to a lengthy punishment, but he left her to process the information and went outside to work on the garden.

When Harry got back inside he found a pile of books waiting on him along with his parchment and quills. Charlie's had also appeared in their room, not that Harry thought he would actually do his work. He hummed happily as he got to work on Snape's assignment as Snape had the highest quality standards and Harry wanted to get started on it right away.

The rest of the summer was set to end well, at least until the incident. Vernon had been several beers deep and had been talking about how the only good kind of freak was a dead one. Vernon had taken to drinking heavily after being turned down for a promotion and had even begun to yell at Petunia over trivial things. Harry had been holding his temper as he amused himself with Petunia's sickly expression during Vernon's rant. Knowing that she wasn't completely muggle entertained him during moments like this. He didn't dare look the least bit upset and risk angering Vernon when he was in this sort of mood.

Charlie though, Charlie's magic lashed out violently breaking several glasses that were on the table. Harry cursed under his breath, of course now of all times Charlie would display magic. Eleven years without such much as a peep of any substantial accidental magic and he chose tonight of all nights to show his true colors. Harry knew there was no one they were going to blame their precious Charlie for this one. He braced himself fearing the worst.

Vernon leaped up from the table and advanced, grabbing Harry by the throat as the other three kept their heads down and dared not to speak.

"P-please don't…" Harry pleaded hopelessly as Vernon began to drag him up the stairs. "I didn't do it…"

Vernon didn't care about his pleas however. By time he had left, Harry's face was crusty from the tears and his swollen eyes rimmed with red. His back and upper thighs were bruised and bloody, marks left by the belt Vernon had used. He awkwardly shifted to lay on his stomach as images of Vernon's dead rotten corpse came to mind. The mirror had shown him something agreeable after all. The entire house was silent as the others tried their best to ignore what they had just heard and Harry didn't dare to make a peep in case Vernon decided to come back for seconds.

Harry was use to the lack of food, the occasional slaps, and the yelling but this was new territory. He closed his eyes and slowly drifted off to sleep trying to ignore the pain as best as he could.

 _"You wish to see me my lord?"_

 _Harry blinked and looked around wondering where he was. It was an ornate room for sure but Harry had never seen it before that he could recall. The only light came from ancient torches lining the wall. He saw Lucius kneeling on the ground in front of a cloaked figure. They didn't seem to notice Harry standing there._

 _"I entrusted something precious to you, did I not?" the man asked. Lucius tensed up immediately._

 _"My lord?" he questioned._

 _"The diary Lucius, I require the diary," the man said impatiently. Harry saw Lucius bowing to the mystery figure who was shrouded in a dark cloak. Before he could reply, Lucius was hit with some sort of spell and hit the ground screaming. Harry briefly wondered if it had been the illegal Torture Curse he had read about, it certainly looked painful enough but he knew there were similar curses that weren't quite as illegal. The figure shifted slightly, reminding Harry of a snake rearing to strike. "I meant now, do not keep your lord waiting."_

 _Lucius scrambled to his feet, "Yes of course, my lord. My apologies, I shall not fail you." Lucius left the room quickly after bowing deeply to the figure._

 _The lord stroked a large snake that had nestled into his lap and around his large chair. *Soon my resurrection sshall be complete, Nagini. I feel much sstronger thanks to the sstone.* the snake uncoiled herself and hit the floor with a small thud seemingly staring at the space Harry occupied. He panicked wondering if the snake could see him-_

Harry awoke startled at the sound of light pecking at the window.

"Just a dream," he whispered to himself but it felt entirely too real.

He stared at the bottom of Charlie's bunk, slowing his breathing back down. He groggily rolled over as the pecking against the window persisted. He dragged himself out a bed and opened it so that Hedwig could come in before she woke the whole house. He took the letter and read through it quickly, glancing nervously at the sleeping Charlie.

"Harry,

Mother has decided to leave for France early. We are leaving early tomorrow before sunrise. We won't be able to take you to a Puddlemere game after all. She extends her deepest apologies but apparently there is an ill great aunt or such that I've never met that's ill and we must go pay our respects. I'm sure they will be quite stuffy. I argued for staying and watching the rest of the Quidditch season but she argued family duty was a far better cause then a game, and then lectured me on getting my priorities straight. Father wasn't any help either, he insisted Mother was right and I had to go right away with her.

I hope we are not trapped in one of the old Black properties for the summer. They are positively decrepit. Nothing like the Malfoy Manor. Don't tell mother I said that. She gets disheartened at the thought. Apparently no one can claim the lordship, for a reason the goblins refuse to enlighten, and none have the necessary funds without an active lord to make major repairs- there's only so much house elves can do after enchantments start wearing off. Many have tried and had a finger melted off if not turned away at the door. The ring has sensitive enchantments, Mother says. Nothing a good healer can't fix though, just a terrible fright.

Your owl is still welcome to roost at the manor, the house elves will make sure to keep her well-fed and treated. Father will also be remaining at the manor. He says that he has very important work to attend to. He doesn't mind your owl so much, I think he thinks she's rather fetching although he does favor his peacocks. I'll see you when term starts. I hope your summer goes well for you. I will try to write but I'm unsure of what Mother's plans are.

 _Draco Lucius Malfoy_ "

Harry folded up the letter and stuffed it into his trunk. He dug out an owl treat for Hedwig and sent her back on her way scratching her head until she was satisfied. He wished she could stay, the house was unbearably lonely. Harry had grown accustomed to being surrounded by other people.

Harry didn't even tell Charlie to buzz off as he retold the gallant tale of his new defeat of Voldemort.

"Then I hopped on a broom and caught the flying key," Charlie whispered, not wanting the Dursleys to hear. Harry raised an eyebrow. It seemed Charlie did not remember abducting Harry and forcing him along with his adventure. He wondered if Quirrell had something to do with that. He didn't want to correct Charlie though, the less people who knew he had been down there the better. He still wasn't sure what the red stone had been. The trio had said it was the Philosopher's Stone that night but Harry wasn't aware of what that was. He couldn't really ask either, because Charlie merely referred to it as the treasure in his story.

"I beat back Voldemort with my bare hands, but he had already gotten away with the treasure. Dumbledore says it isn't my fault though- that Voldemort had defeated better wizards then me," Charlie finished happily. Harry rolled back over in bed, having grown tired with the tall tale.

The summer was never-ending. Harry counted down each day till Hogwarts with an avid persistence. It was the only thing that kept him sane, counting sometimes every hour if it had been a particularly bad day. He had to remind Petunia that they needed to get their books for school soon as the term would be starting. He did so in barely more than a whisper when Vernon was away at work. Petunia dropped them off unceremoniously at the Leaky Cauldron for them to do their school shopping whilst she had an appointment in London- Vernon was away on a business trip.

Harry waited until they were surrounded by magic before casting a simple notice-me-not charm. He knew the Ministry wouldn't be able to specifically track his magic use in a small area densely packed with magic. He simply had no energy left to deal with people and he quickly slipped away from Charlie. He only dropped it once he reached Gringrotts, knowing that the goblins didn't appreciate such spells. They considered them deceitful and acts of disguise. Luckily not many were in the bank, and those wizards that were didn't notice him.

"I'd like to speak to my account Keeper, Griphook, please," Harry asked the teller.

"I'm sure he is busy enough without dealing with a child," the teller responded. Harry frowned as the goblin went back to his paperwork but he refused to budge.

"It's very important. He is expecting me," Harry persisted. He stood on his tip toes to push a document over the counter and held it steadfast right by the goblin's hand until he had no choice but to read it.

"Very well." He was led to a private room in the back of the bank. It seemed to be a small office. There was a shield displayed in a glass case on the wall, a coat of arms that was unfamiliar to Harry. It sparkled radiantly and seemed to be made of pure silver- the details painstakingly carved by hand. It looked ancient but also new as though someone had taken very good care of it.

"My ancestor forged it many generations ago for a now extinct family line. It was kindly recovered," Griphook explained. The snarl on his face though made Harry feel as though he did not want the details on how exactly it was recovered. Luckily he was saved from the possibly gruesome tale as Griphook decided to get down to business.

"We have much to discuss," Griphook started, peering at him.

"I don't have much time," Harry admitted, shifting his weight in the uncomfortable chair.

"Albus Dumbledore was the one holding onto your family's items. He claims that he was holding them under his power as your guardian to keep them safe from the confusion of the years following the war's end," Griphook read over some paperwork.

"My guardian? How's that? I've never even spoken to the man," Harry scowled.

"It seems he had himself appointed your and Charlus Potter's guardian in the days after your parents death. We cannot meddle in wizard's law to change that however we can keep him from accessing your accounts. He's not allowed to withdraw anything, but over the last few months has made several trips into the family vaults. It seems he is searching for something, perhaps one of the rare tombs that was returned," Griphook explained. He handed a slip of paper over, "Just sign here." Harry signed his name. The paper glowed for a moment before settling back down.

"The Potter family vault is now on lockdown. No wizard will be able to enter until you reopen it," Griphook filed the paper away.

"Thank you for everything," Harry went to leave but decided to push his luck with the goblin, as it seemed that Griphook was in a good mood. "Say, you wouldn't have ever happened to heard of a philosopher's stone have you?" Harry asked, it had been bothering him since the end of last year.

"There's said to be only one in existence. It's said to grant the holder eternal life and gold. I'm afraid even with your fortune you would be unable to even glance at one, let alone own one," Griphook snarled a grin.

"Ah that's fine, I had seen it mentioned in a book and it did not mention the uses of it. I know you are well-versed in ancient artifacts so I decided to inquire," Harry said his goodbyes and left to do his shopping holding a new bag of gold. Griphook seemed to be as happy as a goblin could get as Harry left. He figured that the goblin just enjoyed sticking it to Dumbledore. Of course, the bonus Harry gave him must have helped his mood as well. Harry reapplied the notice-me-not charm as he left the building, wishing to remain as discreet as possible while going about his shopping. He saw Charlie surrounded by a small crowd and wanted no part of that.

He was walking around when he felt a familiar string of magic calling to him that caused him to stop in his tracks. It felt similar to Quirell's but was far darker in nature. Harry knew he shouldn't but he still followed the magic to where it was trying to lead him. He ended up in an empty alley far from Diagon. He figured he was mistaken and went to leave when a man appeared out of nowhere to stand before him. The magic felt the same but he didn't have the appearance of Quirrell- he supposed one thing was the same though, the startling crimson eyes.

A hand reached out and grabbed Harry's chin, pulling his head up and running a finger over his busted lip. Harry flinched at the sudden contact but was held in place. "The muggle will pay in time," the man said.

"Who are you really?" Harry didn't move to leave even as the man's hand dropped.

"I think you know, perhaps you don't wish to admit it and thus your own wrongdoings."

"Charlie prattled on that the dark lord had returned I thought he was just mad but…"

Harry's eyes met the man's crimson ones. It only served to confirm Harry's suspicions on just who he handed a stone that granted immortality to. He supposed he should feel guiltier, but he shifted the blame to Dumbledore instead. After all, what kind of great wizard didn't realize what was happening in his own school? The man's presence had been there all year. Had Dumbledore known who really had been teaching DADA?

The man pressed his long fingers to his own lips. "You will be rewarded in time. Now run along child. There are all manner of dark creatures in this part of the alley. It wouldn't due for you to be eaten."

Harry turned and gave one last look before fleeing back towards the bright streets of Diagon. He wasn't going to push his luck with a possibly irrational dark lord. And the warning had been founded, Knockturn was known to be a sanctuary to vampires and hags, not even the ministry dared to intrude. There were raids at times, but never past the first part of the alley- the safest part in comparison to the seedy network.

.~.

Harry was overjoyed to be back at Hogwarts and away from the bland muggle world. He was more than happy to listen to Draco's long bragging rambles. Merlin, he was even happy to see Flint's ugly face and Rosier's disgusting table habits.

Gemma cornered him once they were back in the common room. She looked over him, as if trying to decipher a puzzle.

"You are too skinny. I want you to gain some weight in the next month," she complained poking his sides slightly.

"My aunt's cooking isn't great. I eat less in the summer. I'll gain some, don't worry," Harry replied, looking at Draco for help. Gemma wanted to be a healer, and he did not need her asking questions. She opened her mouth to reply but was cut off by Draco stomping his foot impatiently.

"Harry, come on! I want to show you my new broom," Draco whined. Gemma gave Harry one last hard look and went to go oversee the new prefect giving the first years the welcoming speech. He followed Draco to their dorm room and allowed Draco to go over every detail that his new Nimbus 2001 had. Harry didn't really see how it was so much better then say the Nimbus 1999 or 2000 but he didn't dare voice his suspicion. Especially since he had not rode any of them, just the old school brooms which Draco had degraded as ancient as and no better than levitating twigs from the Founder's age.

"My parents have been acting a bit odd," Draco commented once he had put his broom away in its shiny case. Harry had been staring out their windows looking at the fish swimming by.

"Really?" he asked, turning to look at Draco. Draco was biting his lip nervously.

"Father keeps returning late long after dinner is over most nights. Mother says not to bother him when he gets home either." Draco began to get dressed in his night clothes sighing heavily, "I think Father is sick. He comes home pale and shaky."

"I wouldn't worry about it. I'm sure he is just busy at the ministry with all the raids and everything," Harry replied getting up from his window seat. Draco finally had laid down in bed so he carefully began to undress and change. He didn't want Draco to see the new scars on his back. Vernon hadn't so much as touched him in the past two weeks, so that no one would notice the marks. There were still faint silver lines crisscrossing on his back, he had bought scar vanishing cream in Diagon but it wasn't an instantaneous cure.

"You're right. He had to hide precious family artifacts that are seen as 'dark' objects now. Stupid Arthur Weasley and his muggle protection acts," Draco sneered from his bed.

"See he's just stressed," Harry offered as he climbed into bed. He waved his wand to turn out the lights, relishing in the feeling of being able to freely use magic again. Harry rolled over to stare at the faint glow from the windows.

Hedwig flew down at breakfast a few days later with a package, landing gently on Harry's shoulder.

"You never get mail. Who sent you that?" Draco asked. Harry looked around for a letter or something but nothing gave away the identity of the sender. He opened up the brown paper to reveal a defense book, one he had been looking at in Flourish and Blotts but hadn't been able to get due to a large crowd filing in to see Gilderoy Lockhart. Draco lost interest once he saw it was an ordinary book.

"Mail order," Harry explained, slipping the book into his bag.

"You read too much. First week of term and you are already ordering new books," Draco wrinkled his nose. "You should have been a raven."

"The hat considered it," Harry laughed handing a piece of bacon to Hedwig who hooted happily and took off. Draco gave him a horrified look.

"I suppose that's better than Gryffindor," Draco sneered.

"I doubt their tower would still be standing if I were in the same house as Charlie," Harry peered over at Charlie who was laughing merrily with Granger and Weasley.

Harry was appreciative of his unknown benefactor. Lockhart had turned out to be a complete joke and soon the Slytherins were teaching themselves the course material in the common room. Very few could see the benefit of putting on plays of Lockhart's favorite moments from his books. Gemma even let out a string of swearing that Harry didn't dare repeat after her first class with the idiot. Some of the girls were swooning over Lockhart, but they were the minority in the snake den after the first few weeks of class.

"I'm going to break that git's fingers," Gemma complained to him. Harry looked up from his book at her. He had been resting his head on her legs as they laid outside in the sun, she lazily ran her fingers through his hair as he read.

"I'm sorry, whose fingers are we breaking?" Harry asked, sitting his book on his chest.

"Lockhart. He keeps touching the girls unnecessarily and I've already had to chase some girls off from trying to find his quarters at night 'to ask questions about the homework assignment'," Gemma sighed heavily. "I don't know what Dumbledore was thinking."

"Well, he did hire the dark lord last year allegedly," Harry opened his book back thumbing through it.

"You believe those rumors?" Gemma asked. Harry hummed absentmindedly. Gemma laughed merrily before stopping suddenly. Harry looked up to see a cold expression on her face and sat up to follow her gaze. It took him a minute to spot it but them he saw Warrington walking with another girl. His younger brother, Cassius was nearby as well walking with them.

"Ugh, not Lotte Selwyn," she groaned.

"Who?"

"A 7th year Ravenclaw prefect. Very proper and prissy. I can't stand her- she never does her prefect work cause ladies don't work," Gemma snorted.

"Why's Warrington with her?" Harry asked confused. Last he heard Warrington and Gemma were still an item.

"Cadmus's father disapproved of us."

Harry furrowed his eyebrows at Gemma's hurt expression. "But why? You're practically perfect. Smart, pretty, not afraid of getting your hands dirty. Hell, you're set on becoming the youngest healer in like… ever."

Gemma gave him a smile and playfully ruffled his hair. "His father wants nothing but the best for his first born. That means a well-mannered pureblood lady who will stay home and mind the children. I'm a halfblood without a good family name. Never stood a chance," she laughed bitterly.

"Are you okay?" Harry sat his head back down on her lap, staring daggers at the offending person.

"I will be. I should have known better really."

"He's a jerk anyway. Ugly to boot. You could do much better," Harry comforted. Gemma finally laughed like she meant it.

"That reminds me. McGonagall called me into her office," she said, wiping the tears away from her eyes.

"Why?"

"She wanted to speak about my inappropriate relationship with a fellow student," Gemma giggled. Harry raised an eyebrow.

"Since when did she care about student's relationships?"

"Since she decided that you and me were an item and I was corrupting a poor little 2nd year," Gemma burst into laughter again. Harry's face drained of color and he hopped off of her lap. He liked Gemma alright, but only as a cool older sister who liked to teach slightly frowned upon hexes.

"Ewwww," his reply came. "No offence, but…"

"None taken. You're a bit short to be my type," Gemma teased ruffling his hair. Harry smiled genuinely for the first time since before he had left Hogwarts to go back to the Dursleys. He felt a weight he didn't know he was carrying drop from his shoulders. Not even more strange dreams could ruin his good mood that week. He didn't even have to worry about Charlie trying.

Charlie proved far too busy with Quidditch to bother Harry. He hadn't been sure how Charlie had been picked for the team, but he supposed Gryffindor couldn't do worst then their seeker last year McLaggen- who while good at flying did not have the build or skill to be a seeker, or at least that's what Draco told him. Draco had also been entirely too busy with Quidditch to do much of anything. Harry had almost expected him to give up after the first practice due to the hard work, but it did nothing but fuel his passion for the game. Even when he came back one day covered in mud, he still had a gleaming expression.

Harry almost wished he had been able to join the team just for an opportunity to fly more. With flying classes over, he found himself missing it. However, Flint did not do tryouts- he handpicked the team. It was rather unfair but Snape didn't care to intervene. Harry planned on trying out when Flint graduated if the new captain was more agreeable. Until then he was considering buying his own broom to fly around the grounds during break times.

The hard work had paid off. Draco narrowly caught the snitch and won the first game of the season, beating out Charlie. Draco had even stayed over winter break saying that he couldn't afford to miss any opportunity to practice. Harry pointed out the snow storm but that hadn't deterred him any.

Harry was looking over his potion book at the breakfast table, their end of year exams were coming up and Snape had been even harder this year than the previous. "Did you hear about Lockhart?" Daphne asked. Everyone looked up from what they were doing at her. Curiously enough, Lockhart hadn't joined them at breakfast that morning- the blue robes were hard to miss.

"He's gotten sacked," Daphne announced, with a slight smile.

"What for?" Theo asked. Daphne had succeeded in capturing all of their attention. Her gossip was usually very accurate. No one dared asked for her source though. Harry suspected it was the portraits, he had seen her whispering to them a time or two.

"He tried to memory charm a girl he was harassing in his office after hours," Daphne flipped her hair casually. "She fought back and the memory charm rebounded. He's a drooling mess at St. Mungos with Aurors investigating. They found some incriminating evidence in his office that he never did any of the things in his books."

"I'm not even going to ask how you got that information Miss. Greengrass. The prefects were just informed," Gemma chided sitting down in an empty spot nearby. Daphne gave a sly smile but refused to give up her source.

"Where's Draco?" Gemma asked Harry.

"Going over his training program for the summer with Flint," Harry rolled his eyes.

"Flint that angry Draco missed the snitch in the match against Hufflepuff?"

"No more than he is with himself. I thought he was going to jump into the lake when he realized he lost us the Quidditch Cup."

Gemma shook her head and began piling her plate full of food. Harry went back to his potions text trying to will the information into his head.

The end of the year passed quickly, they had a fill in Defense teacher from the ministry. Shacklebolt was a rather good teacher and had been disgusted at what they had been taught through the year- which wasn't much. With what little time they had left, Shacklebolt had made every class a practical lesson to help catch them up. Harry was a bit sad to see him go but he was just a loan from the Auror Department.

Harry gave his greetings to Lucius and Narcissa at the platform. Lucius had certainly looked worse for wear then Harry remembered. Draco exchanged a look with Harry. There was no promise of escape from the Dursleys this summer. Draco and his mother were leaving for Rome in two days for the entire time.

* * *

Author's Note: Thank you for all the reviews, follows, and favorites.

All content is self-edited.

As Voldemort came back earlier then canon, Lucius did not give the diary to Ginny so the events from CoS did not happen. Things will be picking up in the coming year.


	5. Chapter 4

Warning: Mentions of child abuse

 **Year 3**

The summer was looking to be a bad rerun of the end of the last. Staying on Vernon's good side turned out to be harder than ever. At least this time Harry was able to keep his books from the start. His wand was still taken but he knew how to pick the lock if he needed it. It wasn't as if he could use it anyway. Petunia only talked to him if Vernon was away as such Harry waited until he was to get his Hogsmeade permission slip signed. Petunia signed it reluctantly and he put it in his things for safe keeping- not trusting Charlie and Dudley not to destroy it. All in all it was one of the best birthday presents he had ever gotten from Petunia.

Hedwig dropped off his birthday present from Gemma which was a large box of Honeydukes finest with a note telling him to eat more. He hid those from Charlie who had taken to wizarding sweets. Harry was going to have to ration them if Vernon's tirade kept at it. He had already lost all the healthy weight he had gained at Hogwarts and he had no intentions of another Gemma lecture.

Along with the sweets was another mystery package. This time it did not include books based on the wrapping. Harry unwrapped it carefully. There was an ornate dagger sitting in a velvet lined box. He checked again looking for a name because it seemed awfully like something Draco would buy. He found a small bit of parchment, scrawled on it in elegant writing was a simple note- 'It is poisoned. Do not cut yourself.'

Harry had his suspicions on who sent the dagger as that had not been Draco's handwriting. He didn't know why the dark lord had given him a gift but he wasn't going to argue. He put it in the included sheath carefully and buried it at the bottom of his trunk. It looked to be made of silver and the hilt had an emerald imbedded. He was sure Vernon's adversity to magic did not include such things like silver and gold. Vernon would make an exception, Harry was sure of it.

Draco's present came from his eagle owl a while later, who dropped it off before flying right back out. In it was more sweets and snacks. For once Harry was perfectly content even as the Dursleys could be heard celebrating Charlie's birthday downstairs. He had long past needing their approval.

"Happy Birthday Harry," Charlie said as he returned to their room after the party. Harry was nursing a bruised cheek for dropping and consequently breaking a plate. Charlie stared at him frowning. "Why don't you stay with Malfoy for the rest of the summer? Uncle Vernon can't get you there," he continued after Harry refused to answer.

"Draco and his mother are holidaying abroad for the summer," he answered monotone. The door creaked open and Dudley entered.

"Here, we saved you a piece of cake. Sorry, I've got to go before da' notices," Dudley explained handing him the small piece of cake wrapped in a napkin before the room. Harry resisted the urge to laugh manically at the ridiculousness of it all. He stared at the offending sweet.

"Charlie, do you know why you can't bring your electronics to Hogwarts?" he asked quietly, not moving his eyes. Charlie mumbled some explanation about it frying the electronics.

"Not quite. There's studies that show that when technology is exposed to too much magic, it becomes sentient. When magic is exposed to too much technology, it withers. The enchantment of muggle objects is highly regulated to avoid situations where the objects go haywire," Harry let out a deep sigh he was unaware he was holding.

"Why are you telling me this?" Charlie whispered.

"There are things moving in the shadows, Charlie. It's better if you pretend I don't exist."

"It's Voldemort isn't it…?" Charlie whimpered pathetically.

"Perhaps. Perhaps not. Who's to say what rumors are true and what rumors are merely rumors? Me and you, we are too different."

If Harry thought this summer couldn't get any worse, then he was horribly wrong. He was informed that Aunt Marge decided it would be a great time for an extended visit. Harry tried to keep to himself as much as possible but that didn't save him once Marge and Vernon begun to discuss best techniques for beating rotten dogs. Vernon decided the best thing to do would be to practice the new techniques right away and Marge decided to help.

Harry limped his way to the nearby park as the two monsters passed out drunk in their celebration. He hissed at the cool air that bit at his fresh wounds, wondering why he had put up with it for so long. He sat on a swing wondering about the knife in his trunk and wondered if he should… he stopped himself. The muggles around the neighborhood thought he was going to some school for the criminally inclined. The first person the police would look at for the crime would be him. He also suspected the blade was enchanted which would lead to his imprisonment in Azkaban under the muggle protection laws.

A stray dog wandered up to him and gently licked at his hand. Harry sighed, staring at it noticing that its bones were showing. He grabbed the bit of bread and cheese that Petunia shoved in his hands as she hurried him out the door and offered it to the dog. It whined softly. "I'm sorry, it's all I have," he said. It grabbed the offering and began to eat it anyway. The dog sat and stared at him.

"I don't have any more," Harry repeated. The dog nudged his hand. Harry sighed once more and slowly got up from his seat and sat down next to it, groaning in pain as he did so. The dog whined loudly pawing his hand.

"It's fine. My uncle just doesn't like me much. It's not usually this bad but he had help," Harry explained, petting the dog. Harry studied over the dog as he tried to untangle the mats in its fur. "Sorry, if I had a brush I could do better. You know you look a bit like a grim. I hope that means I'm not dying soon although it would probably be better than staying here," Harry mused. The dog laid its head in his lap. They stayed like that for a while, Harry getting its fur untangled enough to run his fingers through it. He breathed deeply as his heartbeat stopped racing and then noticed something odd about the dog.

"You don't really seem like an animal. You kind of remind me of McGonagall a bit," Harry stated staring into the dog's eyes. Realization dawned on him and he backed up slowly as possible. The dog turned into a human wearing what Harry recognized as prisoners robes. Harry didn't even have a wand on him and here he was, talking to a potential irrational and murdering wizard. They stared at one other waiting for the other to make the first move. Harry's mind was reeling trying to get a grasp on the situation. "You're that death eater, Sirius Black aren't you? You can't kill me … your lord would be angry…" he trailed off helplessly searching for an escape route. Harry stiffened as Black grabbed his shoulders and drew him in close, shaking him slightly.

"Harry…Harry," the wizard shook his own head violently. "You're in danger at Hogwarts. There's a rat. He's missing a finger. The Weasley kid has it. It's Pettigrew. I never betrayed Lily and James the rat did it…. Wait what am I saying. You're in danger here too. I'll kill the damn muggle," Black stared past Harry into space. "Damn, can't take the kid with me. Too many things. Dementors will be coming. No No No. Too Dangerous. Protect Harry."

Harry tried to get free from Black with no avail. "Stick your wand on any road- knight bus will come. Go to Leaky Cauldron. Tom is a good wizard, he'll keep you safe. Yes, good plan. Rat….must catch the rat. He's at Hogwarts. Protect Harry and Charlie… " the haggard wizard was rambling now. "Knight Bus. Leaky Cauldron. Don't trust any rats," Black repeated, this time speaking directly to Harry.

Harry was pulled into a hug and Black turned back into a dog darting off. Harry stared with his mouth ajar trying to process what had just happened. He looked around for the dog but was certain that Black had run off. He laid back down in the grass and took deep breaths looking at the sky.

He had heard Draco talk about the Knight Bus before, the idea had merits. He probably shouldn't take advice from escaped death eaters but he figured the dark lord didn't seem apt to see him dead quite yet. It had to be safer then here where Vernon could get to him.

He returned to Privet Drive carefully opening the door to not draw attention to himself. Thankfully Vernon and Marge were still passed out. Harry went and gathered his things and went to leave quietly. Petunia met him at the bottom of the stairs with an unreadable expression. He glanced at her and went back to what he was doing, picking the lock to the cupboard.

"Will you be back?" she questioned him.

"Not if I can help it," Harry got into the cupboard to get the rest of his things. He looked over at Petunia.

"Can I help you somehow? Do you need money?" Petunia looked more pathetic then Harry could ever remember. She was thin and shaky, her bottom lip wouldn't stop trembling. He tilted his head observing trying to figure out the puzzle.

"No I don't. Tell me one thing though. What does Dumbledore have over you?" he asked. "He has to have something over you. I know he's our actual guardian. You have no legal obligation to take care of either of us."

"He told us that we had to. Those terrorists would be coming around to find us because of _her_ and he would only protect us if we did. I didn't want to be blown up too. After the threat died down, he wouldn't let me keep Charlie unless I kept you too," Petunia let out a long sigh. "He visited before you two came home your second year. He threatened to report us to your kind and have us locked up in Azkaban for our treatment of you. He said he'd make sure that we would never see Charlie or Dudley again," Petunia admitted. Harry let the fury show on his face.

"He knew?" Harry hissed lowly. Petunia nodded frightened. He raised his wand angrily before coming to his senses. He couldn't trigger the Trace, no matter how much he felt Petunia deserved to suffer in that moment. She was a pitiful woman and he despised her for her role but she had provided new information. Petunia took the moment to flee up the stairs.

Harry's face grew calm and he made his way out the door without looking back. He had enough courtesy to Petunia, since she gave him something valuable, to walk away from the house and back towards the park he met the insane death eater. He called the Knight Bus and climbed aboard, staring only once to the darkness that Black had fled in.

"Where are you going?" the conductor asked after going what seemed to be a rehearsed welcome message. He hadn't even looked up from his newspaper.

"Leaky Cauldron," Harry answered keeping his head down. He knew the Knight Bus wasn't exactly a classy way of transportation. Most witches and wizards of good standing looked down on it and only the bottom of society or poor rode it. That and squibs who had issues with other means of magical transportation. Harry took his seat and pulled out a plain black cloak from the top of his trunk. He quickly pulled it on over his clothes and put the hood up before anyone could get curious about him.

He found a discarded newspaper and read through the headlines quickly. He missed getting the wizarding news in the summer but he couldn't risk the owls coming every day. It was a few days old and the whole issue seemed to be dedicated to Sirius Black and his crimes but it was news. Harry had researched the death eater trials last year, but curiously Black was only named as one. Harry had figured he had been out and about somewhere as there was a lack of a trial but this paper confirmed he had been locked up in Azkaban for the murder of Peter Pettigrew and several unnamed muggles.

Harry frowned. Maybe Black had been innocent, the man himself certainly seemed to think so. Surely the man was just completely of his rocker. Then again, Ron Weasley did have a pet rat… Harry's thoughts were interrupted as they arrived. He quickly disembarked with his luggage and went into the tavern. He paid for a night's stay at the counter with Tom who just nodded and exchanged his money for a key. He didn't dare lower his hood. Luckily Tom was not the type to ask questions.

Harry would have to run to Gringrotts in the morning for money to pay for longer. He figured he could always find somewhere else to stay if need be. He climbed the stairs to his room and sat his things down. He locked all the locks on the door and drew a bath in the included bathroom. He sat down slowly and began to wash the caked blood off ignoring the pain as he did so.

Harry walked back into the room to see Hedwig waiting on him. "Good girl, can you take a message to Gem for me?" he asked, scratching her head. She hooted happily, rubbing her head against him. He scrawled a quick note and sent it off with her. He laid on the creaky bed and stared at the ceiling until there was furious banging on the door.

"You open this door this second!" Gemma demanded from the other side. Harry went and opened it. Gemma walked in as he closed it back and redid the locks. She flung her bag down on the bed and grabbed his face staring at his black eyes and swollen lip.

"You can't just send me a note saying you're staying at the Leaky Cauldron and you need medical attention and not explain!" she whispered. Harry shrunk back regretting having written the note in a rush. "Who?"

"The muggles," Harry admitted, not meeting her eyes.

"Shirt off, let me see," she hissed furiously turning to rifle through her things. Harry did as commanded. He knew better then argue with an angry Gemma.

"I knew there was something off about those horrible people. Let me guess, they didn't feed you either. Picky eater my ass, you eat anything in sight when you have a chance," she chided. Harry gave her a sad smile.

"You're not going back there," she decided, healing the wounds to his face first.

"I'd rather burn it to the ground," Harry confessed.

"We have to tell someone!"

Harry snorted. "Dumbledore knows all about their loving care and hasn't tried to fix the situation," Harry explained. "Telling someone wouldn't help- he's my guardian. I'll just lay low here till term starts."

Gemma pulled him into a hug, careful not to apply pressure to his sore spots. "I'll take you in myself if I have to. Hell, I'll kill the bastard first. Here on your stomach. Drop your pants too I see the wounds go further." Harry stopped horrified. "Oh stop it, I'm almost a certified Mediwitch. Do you want to go to St. Mungos and have this all over the papers tomorrow morning?" Harry shook his head. "I didn't think so. Drop the pants." Harry did as he was told and laid on the bed as she healed the rest of the damage.

Harry felt much better by time Gemma had finished. "There, all better. Not a mark on you," Gemma announced. Harry got dressed again, stretching out his healed muscles.

"Thanks," he said.

"Will you be okay staying here?"

"Of course. I'll go hide out at your dad's shop if anything happens. It's the quill one in the corner of Knockturn right?" he asked. Gemma nodded packing up her things.

"I'll tell him to watch out for you. Don't go any further then his shop though, Knockturn is not a place to explore," she ruffled his hair. She went to leave but instead enveloped him into another hug. "He will pay, you know," she whispered. Harry found himself nodding. He kept nodding, ignoring the tightening of his chest. He swallowed hard as Gemma rubbed soothing circles on his back.

"I won't cry. Slytherins don't cry. We're stronger than that. You hold your tears and plot revenge," he said, his voice cracking.

"I know," Gemma simply whispered as she wiped away a tear falling down his cheek.

"I want to kill him you know? Not just see him dead. I want to rip his guts out with my bare hands and dance on them as he bleeds out in pain," Harry let her dry the tears that dared escape.

"I like it. It's colorful," Gemma hummed.

"There's something wrong with me isn't there?"

Gemma sighed and pulled him over to the bed. They laid down.

"Do you know why I want to be a healer?" she asked, running her fingers through his hair. He shook his head.

"It's a wonder no one told you. Everyone gives me a wide berth because of a very good reason. Not because I'm wicked with a wand, which is true," Gemma laughed slightly. "I've murdered someone- two someones actually. My mom was in St. Mungos. She was really sick okay. My dad was watching me but he couldn't shut down the shop because the bills from the hospital were piling up. Normally he wouldn't have taken me to work but this day he did. I was seven, and I slipped out the door while he was in the back. Two scummy wizards tried to kidnap me. They succeeded, they got me back to their dark damp hole and…. Well, My magic fought back for me," Gemma stayed silent for a few minutes. "It shredded them. Into pieces."

Harry opened his mouth to reply but found he couldn't. He wanted to tell her that they deserved it. He wanted to ask if she was okay. He just couldn't but he couldn't look at her any differently, she had been a scared kid defending herself.

"Do you hate me now?" she asked. He shook his head. "No matter what kind of monster you turn into. I can't hate you Harry, it would make me a hypocrite wouldn't it? If you really want to dance on your uncle's entrails, I'll be right there providing just enough care to keep him alive until you are satisfied."

Harry didn't respond and just laid there, relaxing into her arms. Gemma was safe, he could trust her. "Sleep, Harry. Your body needs rest," Gemma threw the blanket over them both and turned out the lights with her wand.

"You're staying?"

This time Gemma didn't reply and instead just hummed a lullaby to him until he found himself growing fuzzy and slipping into sleep.

 _"-ve you done as I said?" the dark lord asked a kneeling Lucius. Harry sat down to observe. He had grown use to these dreams. They came and went in frequency and length but he found it difficult to wake from them. He had learned not to force himself away as it usually resulted in a severe headache._

 _"Yes my lord," Lucius answered. He looked better than last Harry had saw him, his hair was shiny again and the bags from under his eyes were almost gone. "My lord, the others…"_

 _"Whatever you have to say, say it before I lose my patience Luciusss."_

 _"They are wondering why we are trailing this muggle. He's completely unimportant- he sells these drill things," Lucius hesitantly stated._

 _"It is not your place to question your lord. Now what about the other matter," the dark lord stroked Nagini. She was staring holes into Harry but didn't seem apt to tell the dark lord of his presence. He was sure she could sense him but she never said anything._

 _"Lord Gaunt shall be receiving summons to attend the next Wizamagot session. He has been approved. Dumbledore argued against it but the paperwork was flawless. Dumbledore requested a meeting with Cornelius afterward, who expressed concerns that Dumbledore is losing his mind for he suggested to Cornelius that Lord Gaunt was none other than the dark lord," Lucius stated. "Cornelius argued the dark lord was dead and not the generous Lord Gaunt who just donated several thousand galleons to St. Mungos."_

 _"You've done well, Lucius."_

 _"Thank you my lo-"_

Harry woke in the morning with arms wrapped around him. He looked up to see Gemma looking at him. He felt a tad embarrassed at the position and tried to get loose but Gemma refused to let him free. "Gem," he whined.

"Feeling better?" she asked, giving him a warm smile. She finally let go of him.

"Yes. We don't talk about this. Ever," Harry stated, getting up and stretching. He felt lighter then he could ever remember. He and went to change into some fresh robes. "What do I owe you?"

"You don't owe me anything, not even an unnamed favor," Gemma smiled. Harry smiled back genuinely. Gemma was the only Slytherin who didn't ask for a returned favor. Harry could argue she was just doing it because his friendship was valuable when applying to internships and making connections. He knew that was most likely it, at least in the beginning but he found himself not caring.

.~.

Harry spent the time till term began mostly in the room. He only ventured out to Diagon Alley under the cover of a notice-me-not charm. He waited to do his shopping until closer trying not to draw Dumbledore's attention to the fact he was not residing at Privet Drive.

"Harry! Harry! Dang it, Harry stop!"

Harry turned to see Charlie running up to him. He looked around, wondering if he had forgotten the charm but no one else seemed to notice him. He stared at Charlie, wondering how he had noticed him so easily.

"Where were you!?" Charlie exclaimed. Harry cussed under his breath at the looks they were getting and he dragged Charlie into a quiet corner of the alley- Harry refused to become a spectacle for the public to enjoy. "I thought you were dead. I thought they killed you!" Charlie whispered, trying to grab onto Harry. He flinched away from the abrupt contact. "They haven't even mentioned you since you left you know? It's like you never even existed."

"Charlie…"

"I was worried."

Harry stared at Charlie, refusing to back down even if Charlie towered over him. He stood up on his tiptoes and stared Charlie right in the eye. "Charlie, be honest. You weren't worried about me."

"Yes! I was!"

"No, you really weren't. We've never been close okay? You weren't worried about me. You were worried that they were going to find my dead body and Vernon would have gone to jail and your perfect life with the muggles would had been over. Then, when you were forced into the wizarding world- they would have treated you terribly. They would have blamed you for not stepping forward," Harry glared hard at Charlie, refusing to relent at the sight of Charlie's eyes growing watery. He didn't care if it hurt Charlie to look at the truth in the face. "No. You weren't worried about me because you know what Charlie? You only care about yourself and yourself only. Don't fucking pretend to care about me. Because you don't. You don't even have the right."

Harry went to leave, determined to get away to anywhere other than here. He refused to look at Charlie even as he began to hear pitiful whimpers.

"Do you…" Charlie began to speak before cutting himself off. Harry heard a deep breath. "Do you think you know, if Mum and Dad had lived…that we could have been like real brothers?"

Harry turned and saw tears wetting Charlie's face. He let out a deep sigh. "I don't know, Charlie. Maybe but they didn't. You can't dwell on what could have been. Face reality. Grow up some." Harry wiped away one of the tears he saw falling down Charlie's face. "Clean up your face. Can't have the public seeing their hero crying."

"I never told anyone you know?" Charlie said, hiccupping.

"I know you didn't tell anyone about Vernon," Harry pinched his nose exasperated.

"No not that-"

"Tell them what Charlie?" Harry cut off, glaring at him again.

"That you can speak to snakes like Voldemort. I see you in the garden sometimes. I don't understand but I hear the hissing. Ron asked me once- I think he overheard you. I told him he was hearing things and I think I would know if my own brother spoke Parseltounge. It's one of the only times I've ever lied to him. I just want you to know that. You know what they would think if they knew."

"What? That I'm the next dark lord? Or that I'm really his son and not a Potter at all? That you are the only true boy-who-lived? You don't think I hear the whispers? Tell them for all I care," Harry retorted to a shocked Charlie. Harry had seen Charlie spying and had figured Charlie knew. It wasn't that he hid his talent but he didn't want the Slytherins to treat him any differently and he knew they would. They would all bother him asking him to translate what their pet snakes are saying or the portraits in the common room, or asking him to teach them. He wasn't ashamed, it would merely be an inconvenience.

"I know you won't though. You don't want to be the one who has an evil wizard for a brother," Harry smirked. He left the stunned Charlie and took advantage of the busy alley to lose him before he came to his senses. He weaved in and out of the growing crowd until he slipped into the Leaky Cauldron.

Tom slid a plate and glass across the counter and he grabbed it, drawing up his hood and taking a seat. Tom went back to cleaning the glasses. Harry scarfed down his food and retreated back upstairs. He passed by his small writing desk, only to jump slightly as his Care for Magical Creatures book tried escape it's restraints and lunge at him.

"I am so not in the mood," Harry hissed picking up the offending book and throwing it hard at the wall where it landed on the floor with a thud.

* * *

Author's note: Thank you all for the favorites, follows, and reviews!


	6. Chapter 5

**Year 3**

"Who's he?" Draco asked, pointing towards the other occupant in the train compartment. Harry glanced up from his book. They had been sitting in silence for a long time after Draco had managed to find him- after casual greetings the conversation had stopped completely.

"R.J. Lupin, I suppose he will be our new Defense teacher," he answered turning back to his book. They sat in silence again, Harry ignored the fact Draco was staring holes into him.

"There you are, Harry. How are you?" Gemma asked after she opened the door to the compartment. Harry sat his book down and looked up at her.

"Fine, Gemma," he answered. He looked at her robes expectantly but didn't find what he was looking for. He had been sure that Gemma would receive Headgirl, it's all she could talk about.

"They gave Headgirl to Clearwater. There was a fear I would be unable to cope with the duties of headgirl and apprenticing in the Hospital Wing," she explained. "It's a good thing too-Weasley got headboy."

Draco and Harry both made a face at the same time. "Prefect Farley! You are supposed to be doing rounds," a muffled voice called from outside the corridor. Gemma clenched her jaw.

"Speak of the devil…" Gemma rolled her eyes. "Of course -" she said sweetly sticking her head out of the compartment. "I've got to go. Take care, Harry," Gemma ruffled his hair until he finally smiled back and she left quickly. Harry picked back up his book.

"Harry…" Draco spoke up after a lull. Harry looked up to find Draco gnawing on his bottom lip. Harry closed his book and placed it back into his bag. "We are friends, aren't we?" Draco asked.

"I would say yes," Harry tilted his head slightly observing Draco who let out a sigh of relief. "Why?"

"Oh it's nothing. Did you get your book for Care of Magical Creatures?" Draco spoke rapidly. Harry stared at Draco a moment more, sensing his apprehension. He had noticed the attempt to change the conversation but he decided to let it slide.

"Bit of a nightmare book isn't it? Whose great idea was it to enchant a book that wants to bite your face off? I'm surprised we aren't using a Scamander text. Isn't he supposed to be the best?" Harry answered. Draco nodded. "I still haven't gotten it to calm down enough to actually read it."

"Me either. I was hoping you had figured it out," Draco shrugged. Harry shrugged back. Draco threw him some sweets and they chatted quietly about nothings to not wake the new professor.

The rain continued to pour harder the closer to Hogwarts they got. "Then I got lost where they kept the Manticores at," Draco continued his story about his time in Rome. "Mother was very upset when they found me but it was incredible. I found a shed spine in the sand pits. They let me keep it." Draco dug through his trunk till he found a box which contained the long sharp spine. "It's not venomous anymore since it's so old but it's still remarkable. I was going to show Professor Snape after our first potions class."

The train lurched to a stop before Harry could reply. They looked out the window in confusion. "We aren't close to Hogwarts," Harry whispered. Draco nodded slowly as they both reached for their wands. Harry clenched his robes tighter as the temperature began to drop and all the lamps went out, plunging them all into darkness.

"Harry?" Draco whispered. Harry casted _lumos_ to lighten up the compartment. He looked and saw that Lupin was finally awake and staring at the door- he motioned them to move closer to the back. Harry and Draco backed up and focused in on the door. The door slid open slowly and a creature glided through. Harry began shaking at the sight and feel of the creature.

"D-dementor…" Draco whispered, unsteady as well. Harry was colder then he could ever remember being. It was colder than even the deepest part of the Slytherin dungeons in the winter time- as though he would never be able to feel warmth again. He began shaking violently until his eyes rolled back and he lost consciousness. All at once he could feel Vernon's hands on him all over again. _Boy- Freak- Disgusting-_

"-rry. Harry!" Harry turned his head towards the sound. "Harry you idiot wake up!"

He opened his eyes to see a flushed Draco inches away. Draco recoiled back quickly as he sat up and grabbed his wand which had fallen from his grasp. The train was moving again and the lights functional.

"Here, eat this. It'll help," Lupin said handing each of them a chunk of chocolate. Lupin left the compartment and Harry found himself leaning on Draco for support, wishing desperately that his head would stop pounding.

"You okay?" Draco asked.

"I don't know," he replied staring blankly at the chocolate sitting in his hands. He broke off a smaller piece and let it sit in his mouth melting while he stared out the window. The pain dulled a bit but was still there. Draco had to help him to the Slytherin table as he still had slight tremors.

"They were looking for Black," Daphne explained staring at his shaky hands. Harry glared at the look on her face.

"I'm fine. Everyone stop looking at me like that," Harry stared at each of the offenders. He turned his attention back to the sorting.

"Greengrass, Astoria-"

"SLYTHERIN!"

Daphne stared in contempt at the little blonde girl making her way cheerily to the table. Harry raised an eyebrow at her. It wasn't like Daphne to let her emotions show so openly.

"My little sister," she explained with a sour look. Astoria waved happily at Daphne who ignored her and turned her head away. Harry decided not to bother her further, he couldn't be a hypocrite- he often looked at Charlie with the same contempt. The sorting soon ended and the food appeared. Harry picked at it a bit, not having much of an appetite.

Gemma walked over and handed him a giant slice of chocolate cake. "Every last bite, Harry," she chided as he began to pick at it with his fork. "I want to give you a check after the feast," she ruffled his hair fondly before going back down to her place at the table. He looked over and saw the pitying eyes of the upperclassmen.

"So does everyone know I fainted?" he hissed at Draco.

Draco just shrugged at him. "It's not that big of a stretch, you look pretty terrible," he answered. Harry resisted the childish urge to stick his tongue out and instead sat up straighter intent on ignoring the Slytherin table. He ignored the look that Charlie was giving him from the Gryffindor table. He couldn't stand any more pity. He looked back over at Astoria who was chatting happily with the other new sorts instead.

"Mafalda Prewett," Pansy whispered to them drawing their attention the curly redhead-

"So?" Theo asked interrupting her.

"Well, all the Prewett's all supposedly died during the war except for the female line," Pansy rolled her eyes. "It's a little odd isn't it? I heard a rumor her father is a squib."

"Really? We haven't even been back a day and all you are concerned with is gossip. Knock it off, Pansy," Blaise looked up from his food to give her a dirty look. Harry went back to stabbing his chocolate cake with his fork, taking small bites every time Gemma glared over at him. He followed her after the feast knowing better than to argue with her. He could tell she was already upset with his minimal eating.

"Snape?" he asked as they continued past the common room and Gemma informed him his presence was wanted. "Can't we just go back to the dorms?" he whined as he ceased walking.

"Oh come on. He's not that bad, and he says he needs to speak with you," Gemma placed her hand on her hip and looked at Harry sternly. He made a face at her and started walking again, this time hanging back a little behind Gemma. "You cannot hide in my robes like a toddler," Gemma sighed.

"I don't know what you are talking about," Harry said innocently. She shook her head at him and knocked on Snape's door as he positioned himself further to be better covered by her.

"Come in-" they walked in to see Snape sitting at his desk looking rather sour. "Farley, please exam Potter here as I speak. I do not wish to be here all night," Snape sneered.

Gemma began to do as Snape commanded. "Potter, it has been determined that for your safety that you will not be going to Hogsmeade. There are concerns over your adverse reaction to the Dementors. As the dementors will be stationed around Hogwart's perimeter until such time Black is caught, you are to stay on the castle grounds."

Harry began to protest but Gemma pinched him out of sight of Snape. "Is that all, Professor?" he asked, getting up.

"Sit. I was not finished," Snape snapped.

"You are still really cold but you seem fine otherwise. The shaking has stopped for now. I want you to eat chocolate every day and check in with Pomfrey tomorrow morning to make sure I didn't miss anything," Gemma said, glancing at Snape. He waved her off dismissively but she stood steadfast next to Harry.

"Your services are no longer required," Snape glared at her.

"I'm not leaving Harry unless he wants me to," Gemma stared him down defiantly returning the glare.

"I want her here," Harry spoke quietly trying to gage Snape's reaction.

"The headmaster expressed concerns about your unknown whereabouts this summer," Snape spat out. "He wants me to inform you it is imperative for you to stay at your relative's house next summer."

"You're kidding me? The headmaster wants him to go back?! They are terrible people!" Gemma's hand clenched tight on Harry's shoulder as he stiffened.

"This is not your concern," Snape drawled lazily. "Potter cannot run away anytime he doesn't get his way."

Gemma stood with her mouth agape. "Didn't get his way? They didn't feed him and-" Harry squeezed her hand to get her attention and shook his head slightly to get her to stop. He knew it wasn't worth the argument. He wasn't entirely sure what the Headmaster was up to but the less Dumbledore paid attention to him the better. So if Dumbledore wanted to believe he was returning next summer- he would let the Headmaster believe that.

"Regardless the matter is out of my hands," Snape glared at them both. "Now leave."

Harry quickly walked out the door as he felt his chest tightening. His knuckles had turn white from how hard he was clenching his fists. He waited until Gemma closed the door with a click before turning around and punching the nearby wall. Gemma leaped forward and grabbed his hand.

"Stupid, Stupid, Stupid!" she scolded, taking her wand out immediately. Harry just stared at her. "What good does punching a stone wall do other than breaking your hand?" she hissed as she inspected his hand. His knuckles were busted up and bleeding as he stared blankly at them.

Gemma lead him back to the common room to heal his wounds and wrapped up his hand, lecturing him the entire time.

"You awake?" Harry asked Draco as he walked into their dorm.

"Yeah, what took so long?" Draco sat up in his bed. Harry shrugged his shoulders and went to go change.

"Snape says I'm not allowed to go to Hogsmeade. The staff is concerned about my well-being," he explained.

"They can't do that!"

"Apparently they can. It's fine though." Harry sifted through his trunk to move out what he thought he might need in the morning and moved his trunk into the floor, intent on going to sleep and unpacking the rest tomorrow.

"No they can't. I'll talk to Professor Snape. They've got to let you go," Draco whined slightly. Harry laughed.

"Good luck with that. You're welcome to try." Harry pulled his covers over him. "Say, do you know anything about Sirius Black?" he asked, staring over to Draco's side. Draco hesitated.

"He escaped Azkaban," Draco finally answered. Harry rolled his eyes.

"I know that. Everyone does. I meant from before he went to Azkaban."

"He's my mother's cousin. They didn't get along though."

"Draco, what do you know? You're avoiding my question." Harry sat straight up and bed and glared.

"Fine! He supposedly gave up your parent's hiding spot to the Dark Lord. My mother says she never suspected it because he was always so close to your father. He apparently got disowned for refusing to join the Dark Lord's service so she says it doesn't make much sense. She told me not to speak to you about it though!" Draco defended, looking rather pale. Harry just rolled his eyes again.

"That wasn't that hard now was it?"

"I thought you would be angry."

"Just curious."

.~.

Harry stroked the hippogriff softly as Hagrid kept releasing the others from their ties. Draco approached bowing lowly until Buckbeak had bowed back. Charlie was chatting happily with Granger and Weasley over by a chestnut colored hippogriff.

"Good job," Harry complimented.

"It was really easy," Draco drawled back patting Buckbeak on the beak.

"It wasn't too difficult. Interesting choice for our first lesson though. I thought we would be seeing bowtruckles or maybe an augurey." Harry went back to petting Buckbeak. Draco looked over at disdain at the Gryffindor Trio. "What?"

"They can't be that dangerous if those idiots are accomplishing it. It's just a dumb beast," Malfoy patted Buckbeak rather hard as Harry's eyes went wide shaking his head frantically. Harry was sent flying back as Buckbeak reared up. Harry heard Malfoy scream and he leapt back up as Hagrid wrestled with Buckbeak.

"I'm dying!" Malfoy yelled. Harry looked in shock at the blood pouring from the wound. He knelt beside Malfoy and applied pressure to the wound.

"Yer not dyin!" Hagrid spoke nervously and went to pick up Malfoy.

"You have to keep pressure on it so he doesn't bleed out! No amount of magic will help if he doesn't have a drop left in him," Harry protested waving his hands wildly.

"Blood? Bleed out?" Draco's eyes rolled back. Harry showed Hagrid where to apply the pressure and followed him to the hospital wing.

"Buckbeak didn't mean too!" Hargrid protested to Gemma as she hurried over. There were tears rolling down the giant's face. Gemma looked at Harry with an eyebrow raised as Hagrid began sobbing after sitting Draco down on a free bed.

"Hippogriff. He insulted it and it reared up and used its talons," Harry explained shortly. "I applied pressure to the wound as soon as it happened. It was bleeding a lot- Draco saw and passed out."

"Good thinking," Gemma checked over Draco.

"I-is he alrite?" Hagrid hiccupped in between his bawling, dabbing his eyes with a large handkerchief. Gemma glanced over at him.

"You! Out! I can't work with the sobbing," Gemma sighed, pointing Hagrid out the door. Gemma looked over the wound, then at Draco checking his pupils, and then at Harry. "Did he really faint at the sight of blood?" she struggled to keep a straight face. Harry nodded as Draco came to moaning in pain.

"Hipoogriffs?" Gemma raised her eyebrow. Harry nodded in confirmation again. "Really? Who shows hippogriffs to third years? Better yet, who insults a one after being told not to!?" Gemma chided Draco as she gathered supplies.

"Where's Pomfrey?" Harry asked looking around. He hadn't seen her since they got there.

"She stepped out for a bit. You're stuck with me," Gemma explained as she cut away the rest of Draco's sleeve.

"Fix it!" Draco groaned. "I'm dying aren't I?" Gemma ignored him and began cleaning the wound with a cotton ball and potion solution. "I'll kill the bloody beast. My father won't let it live after this."

Harry crossed his arms stubbornly. "I like Buckbeak" he pouted biting his lip slightly, "besides, it isn't that bad. Gemma could heal it quickly- she's just making you suffer to teach you a lesson." Draco glared at him but squealed in pain as Gemma applied some pressure. "Don't let your dad kill Buckbeak?" Harry asked with a sickening sweet smile.

"Fine!" Draco snapped as Gemma pressed down again. "Bloody hell! Farley just heal it!"

Gemma looked at him with a smile equaling Harry's own as she held a cotton ball soaked in potion. "You promise not to hurt the hippogriff?" she asked tilting her head. Draco glared at her. "Oh, Harry. Can you go get the suture kit? I think we'll have to heal this the muggle way. I can't seem to remember the incantation for stitching skin back together and Madame Pomfrey won't be back for a while."

"Suture? That's the one with the needles and thread right? You just sew it back like it's a hole in a robe?" Harry played along looking through Gemma's things. Draco's face turned even paler.

"I PROMISE!" Draco yelled helplessly. Gemma kept her smile and waved her wand, the skin from the cut stitched itself back together flawlessly. Gemma smeared a cream on it and wrapped it up.

"The wound may reopen. Healing cuts from magical creatures can be tricky. I want you to keep a sling on it for a couple weeks until it's healed completely. You'll stay here until Madame Pomfrey comes back and takes a look," she said packing up the things that had spread around them. She handed Harry a chocolate bar. "And you- eat more chocolate. Your hands are still as cold as ice," she scolded walking away to tend to others around.

"I think she might be working undercover for the Dark Lord to discover new torture methods. Death by chocolate," Harry grinned breaking off a piece for Draco. Draco grumbled but took the offered piece with his good hand all the same.

He walked Draco back down to the dungeons after Pomfrey discharged him. They had barely got into the door when they were ambushed.

"Oh Draco. How terrible!" Pansy simpered pathetically, placing her hand on the sling and getting much to close for Harry's comfort. He took several steps to the side deciding it was Draco's problem now. "Does it hurt?"

"Not really," Draco grimaced.

"They should kill that awful beast for hurting you," Pansy took another step closer to Draco, practically hanging off of him. Draco took a sly step back and rubbed his neck uncomfortable.

"Buzz off Pansy. Draco insulted it and paid the price. We were told to be careful not to poke fun at the hippogriffs," Harry hissed crossing his arms. Pansy gave him an impudent look, staring him down as she placed her hand lovingly on Draco's shoulder.

"Come on Draco. You don't have to hang around the filthy half-blood," Pansy spoke sweetly, batting her eyelashes. Harry raised an eyebrow at her.

"You heard him Pansy. Buzz off." Draco brushed past her, heading towards their dorm. Harry smirked at Pansy's undignified face.

"Aww your poor daddy is going to be so upset his precious little daughter failed at capturing the Malfoy heir's attention," he faked sympathy before glaring hard at her. "Watch what you say Pans. This filthy half-blood was never taught proper etiquette, I may just hex your ugly nose off. Maybe then Pomfrey can grow you one that doesn't make you look like a simpering mutt," he whispered lowly enough so that only Pansy could hear. He waited until she scampered off in tears before he went in search of Draco.

.~.

Harry waved goodbye to Draco and the others as they set out to visit Hogsmeade. He didn't dare protest Snape's proclamation that he was unable to go. They had even taken his permission slip. He pulled his cloak tighter around him as he got sick to his stomach. It was hardly his fault the dementors affected him more than others. His only consolation was that Charlie had his privileges revoked for safety as well. It was a small victory but one none the less.

He wandered around the halls in an attempt to get into the owlery to see Hedwig. He hoped a visit might cheer him up since everyone had left for the day except for the younger students who he didn't know well.

"Harry? Is that you?" Harry stopped and saw Lupin sticking his head out the door, staring at him. "Why don't you come in for a cup of tea?" Harry shrugged and walked in not bothering to argue. He had enjoyed Lupin's classes and he didn't see the harm in a bit of tea. "Where's your brother?"

"Not sure. We don't really talk," Harry replied. Lupin looked over at him and frowned but led him through the classroom to his office anyway.

"If it helps I argued for you to get to go to Hogsmeade," Lupin smiled at him as he sat down a mug. Harry sat down in the chair provided. Harry stared at the eerie grindylow in the tank trying his best to remain unaffected. "It's a shame. I often enjoyed going with my friends," Lupin looked rather upset. Harry quirked his eyebrow.

"You can stop you know," Harry said, staring at his cup of tea suspiciously.

"I'm sorry, I don't understand?"

"Charlie's got this photo album of our parents. Funny thing is, you have the same scars on your cheek as this bloke that's in them does. Funnier yet is that Sirius Black is in them too." Harry took a sip of tea deciding it wasn't poison. "I wouldn't worry though, Charlie isn't the most observant."

Lupin stared at him silently, his mouth slightly open. He closed his jaw with a click and then seemingly tried to find the words to say but failed.

"I've been researching lately. I've been told that Black is about the most unlikely Death Eater and actually was one of the number one enemies as far as most were aware. Interesting isn't it? That he went from an enemy to so high up even top level death eaters knew nothing of it? Of course, all conjecture and gossip," Harry asked tilting his head trying to gage Lupin's reaction. He could use an ally to help him with trying to figure out if Black was actually innocent or not.

Lupin sputtered but was saved by Snape's arrival. He handed Lupin a goblet full of a smoky potion. His gaze lingered between Lupin and Harry, full of distaste.

"I was just showing Harry the grindylow I caught to show his class," Lupin explained pointing towards the tank. Snape's eyebrow twitched slightly.

"Fascinating I'm sure. Do remember to drink every drop of that. I have more ready. You'll need more tomorrow," Snape said his eyes never leaving Harry. "And Potter, I do believe you were told not to be gallivanting around today." Snape swept out of the room without a word more. Lupin looked at the goblet in disgust.

"Shame sugar ruins the whole purpose," he said drowning it in one go. "You are more than welcome to join me again during the next Hogsmeade trip, but I'm afraid I must get back to grading papers. I will see you at the feast," Lupin spoke quickly and practically shoved Harry out of the door.

Harry kept his annoyance off his face as Lupin shut the door. He realized he had probably sprung too much at once and should have taken it slower. He left to go back to the common room, putting off his visit to Hedwig. He supposed that Lupin would need time to think about what he had said- perhaps it was a sore subject for the raggedy man.

Harry had only been settled into bed after the Halloween feast a moment before there was loud bang at their doors. "Everyone to the Great Hall," came the shouting from outside. He sleepily wandered out with Draco even in midst of the confusion. "Let's go people!"

"I heard Black broke into the castle. He tried to get into the Gryffindor common room. Probably after your brother," Daphne said quietly as they made their way upstairs.

"Black was in the castle?" Harry asked stopping momentarily before being shoved forward. That certainly didn't speak towards Black's innocence. He wondered how one even broke into Hogwarts. It was supposed to be one of the safest buildings in Britain.

Daphne nodded. "The portraits were talking. Apparently he attacked a portrait near their entrance, shredded it into pieces." She looked at him with concern as they were pushed further forward. He lost Daphne in the confusion. He looked for her as he grabbed some of the sleeping bags Dumbledore had conjured but she was nowhere to be found in the sea of students.

"Sleeping in blankets on the floor! My father will hear about this," Draco complained, staring in contempt at the blanket in the floor.

"It's called a sleeping bag, Draco." Harry rolled his eyes laying down in it. He found it surprisingly soft and he nestled further into the bag. "It's not that bad. Pretty comfortable actually. I think he intertwined a cushioning charm into the conjuring charm."

Draco glared at him but crawled into the sleeping bag anyway. "It's undignified!" he scowled.

"No more talking!" Percy shouted over the buzz of the hall. They fell into silence as Percy and his horde of prefects began walking through the students, shushing the rowdier crowds.

A thud landed on top of his sleeping bag and he looked up to see Gemma peering down at him.

"Here. I brought you an extra blanket." She smiled at him. He raised an eyebrow at her silently asking the question running through his mind. "They didn't find the intruder- who I'm sure Greengrass already told you was Black, honestly I think that girl knows more than the professors do sometimes," she answered.

"The dementors will be searching the grounds while some of the teacher's search every inch of the castle. Dumbledore won't let them in the castle but make sure you let me know if you have a bad reaction." She handed him a couple chocolate bars. Harry looked at them in disgust, not knowing how much more chocolate he could take. "I'll be right out the doors."

"Prefect Farley. I've already said no talking, stop encouraging them," Percy yelled from a couple rows away.

"Of course," Gemma said sweetly. Both Draco and Harry looked at each other and flinched slightly. It was never good when Gemma adopted that tone. "I'm going to hex his bollocks off someday soon," she mumbled under her breath. Harry stifled his laugh.

"Prefect Farley!" Percy called again.

"Coming," Gemma returned. She bent over and ruffled Harry's hair affectionately. She walked away before Percy could shout again at her. Harry waited in silence for a while until Percy finally wandered to the other side of the hall.

"Do you think Black is guilty?" he whispered over to Draco who was staring straight up at the ceiling.

"Why?" Draco turned over and stared at him looking rather baffled.

"Did you mother ever mentioned he never had a trial?" he asked. Draco shook his head slightly. "Even Bellatrix Lestrange got a trial and she confessed every step of the way to her guilt." Harry stopped at Draco's strange look.

"Quiet! Lights out!" Percy shouted over the rising volume. "No more talking!"

All of the candles blew out at once, only the silver glow emitting from the ghosts floating about provided any light. Harry stared at the starry ceiling as they laid in silence. His mind was reeling trying to figure out the riddle that had presented itself. All the pieces made him doubt that Black was guilty but it was murky and treacherous territory. He didn't know how to proceed further. He couldn't speak out- no one would ever believe him. He drifted slowly off to sleep as the conversations around him died down.


	7. Chapter 6

**Year 3**

Harry lingered in the library in his spot. It was as secluded as it could get as very few ventured this deep into the law section except for Madame Pince who kept excellent care of the older tombs. He stayed in his corner quietly turning the pages searching for answers about Black, hoping for confirmation of his guilt. The school had been in disorder since Black broke in a few days before. Everyone was spreading rumors about where he could be hiding at in and around the castle. Harry was beginning to worry that Black would get caught before he could solve the puzzle.

Harry was determined to get Lupin to listen to him but it seemed the man wasn't even in the castle. Snape had been covering the DADA lessons. Harry decided to gather evidence to present to Lupin when he returned as Lupin knew Black so perhaps he would have more insight on the matter.

"I don't understand! He's not anywhere in _Notable Trials of the 20_ _th_ _Century_ or _A Summary of the Death Eater Trials_ ," he heard a voice from a couple stacks nearby. He stilled, he recognized it somehow. If they were looking for information on Black those were the wrong books to look in. Harry had already found Black not to be listed anywhere in them. "If he's this notorious- you think he would be here but I can't find him anywhere."

"I don't know why you care so much 'Mione." Harry froze, that was definitely Charlie. He shut his book as quietly as possible and went to sneak off before he was found.

"If You-Know-Who is really back then we need to be prepared. He's already attacked you twice and now Black has tried to get into the common room. We need to know what Black is capable of," Granger protested. Harry heard furious page turning before the book slammed shut.

"You mean other than blowing up a bunch of muggles?" Weasley chimed in, muffled as thought he was stuffing food in his mouth.

"Of course! How could I be so stupid?" Harry ducked as Granger began walking towards him. "We can ask your brother!"

"I doubt any of Ron's brothers know anything about Voldemort's plans," Charlie laughed.

"Not his! Yours. Harry hangs out with older Slytherins- one of his friends is Draco Malfoy for goodness sake. He must know something, right?"

"You want to ask that slimy snake?" Ron protested.

"Hermoine- Harry isn't going to talk to us. He hates me."

"He doesn't! His your brother, he has to like you."

"He's dark, you can't trust him-" Ron broke in "I don't know why you think this is a good idea."

"No I mean, he really does hate me. I don't think I blame him either," Charlie spoke up.

"Charlie! That's terrible!"

"Eh, we don't need that git's help at all do we, Charlie?"

Harry decided to play with them a little bit. They were in his way anyway, he had finished looking though the particular tomb he had and required a new one. He stepped out from his stack and went to a shelf near their table. He was not going to hide in the shadows any longer like he was in the wrong. He hadn't been doing anything wrong. He paused and looked at them with a raised eyebrow. Weasley was indeed eating pumpkin pastries at the table. That was rather brave considering Pince's strict rules about food.

"Even if I knew anything, I wouldn't just give that information freely- not that I do." He gathered the books he needed. He glanced at their pale faces and frowned slightly. "I owe nothing to boy wonder over there."

They fell into silence as if contemplating whether or not to leave. Harry turned his back to them and pretended to be surveying the shelves. They should really learn a privacy charm if they were going to speak ill of someone in a public setting. In his annoyance, he spotted a common spider crawling slowly on the floor towards the group. He held back a smirk remembering Charlie having mentioned Ron's phobia.

Harry flicked his wand slyly at the spot on the floor and left quickly before they noticed the small spider begin to grow and crawl towards the group. Technically he didn't curse anyone, as _engorgio_ was a charm not a curse. Not that he wanted to be caught using magic in close proximity to the ancient books, Madame Pince was downright scary when provoked.

The Gryffindor Trio didn't seem to notice either so he quietly slipped away. He was checking out his books when he heard a shrill scream coming from that direction. Madame Pince looked in the direction sternly, taking off towards the source.

"SHOUTING AND FOOD IN MY LIBRARY! OUT ALL OF YOU!"

Harry rapidly slipped out the door not wanting to draw any of Pince's ire. He went back to the common room to look over his spoils. He spread out several books on his bed and hopped up.

"What are you doing?" Draco asked as he trudged in from Quidditch practice, throwing his muddy boots in a corner.

"Trying to read through these law books but the language is absolute archaic. I don't think they've been updated since the 1800s," Harry looked up in confusion at Draco. "I thought Gemma wouldn't clear you for Quidditch?"

Draco sneered before walking over and grabbing a book reading over the pages. "She won't. I couldn't do anything so I ended up grounded on the field tossing Quaffles. She says I can't play in the first match of the season. It's preposterous. Flint's pissed- he's going to Snape."

"She's not going to like that," Harry warned as he tossed another book aside.

"What are you looking for?"

"Any legalities concerning a criminal being convicted without a trial or a hearing to confirm guilt."

"This still about Black? You've been obsessed with this."

"It's something to do. Every other convicted Death Eater received some sort of trial or hearing and it's all documented, except for Black. It seems rather irregular doesn't it?" Harry looked up at Draco who finally seemed to be pondering Harry's conundrum.

"That is kind of weird. Even Father had a hearing and he was never officially charged," Draco admitted. Harry smiled.

"So you are going to help?" he asked, hopeful. Draco gave him a light-hearted sneer and climbed onto his bed with him.

"Let me see your essay on werewolves that Snape assigned," Draco haggled. Harry leaned over the bed and riffled through his bed before finding the essay and tossing it over. Draco stashed his spoils.

"All yours."

They fell into silence except for the occasional turning of the page. Harry lost track of time as his eyes began to burn and he found himself reading the same paragraph over and over. He found himself nodding off only to startle himself awake as he began to slip.

"Here!" Draco exclaimed causing Harry to feel very alert all of a sudden. "Magical Law Code 401.20: Section 10b: 'If all presiding judges deem a prisoner a danger to public during times of war and said prisoner has made an admission of guilt, the following trial may be postponed and prisoner held until a time can be determined but no longer than three years of incarceration.'"

Harry grabbed the book from Draco and read over it rapidly. "There was no later trial though. I looked into all trials in the ten years following the Fall of Voldemort," he said, sitting the book back down to riffle through more things. He pulled out a long piece of parchment. "I organized all trials from 1980-1990 with defendants listed in alphabetical order. Black is nowhere on it," he pointed towards the space in between Berke and Bletchly where Black would have gone."

Draco scrunched up his face slightly and took the parchment. "Merlin, is this why you've shut yourself up in this room and the library? When was the last time you went outside?"

Harry froze and fidgeted nervously. "I can't stand going outside," he admitted, scratching his neck. "The last time I tried I puked everywhere from the Dementors."

"But they haven't been on the grounds," Draco looked at him in confusion. "How could they make you sick from all that way?"

"I don't know but I'd prefer just to stay far away from them. They plunge the whole area in death and despair," Harry shrugged as he began to clean up his bed. His eyelids were growing heavy again. "The question is though, who were the presiding judges and did they indeed stop Black from having a trial?"

"I could ask my father. He knows people in the Ministry. He should be able to get some files you won't find in these dusty old books," Draco spoke, stepping off Harry's bed and stretching out. Harry looked at him, pleading silently.

"I'll let you copy off my Runes translations," he bargained.

"For a month. Father doesn't like being bothered," Draco narrowed his eyes.

"Three weeks plus you give me some of the biscuits your mother sent and you've

hoarded," Harry crossed his arms stubbornly. Draco relented and they exchanged the goods.

Harry had grown use to the barter system that ran through Slytherin and even learned how to use it to his advantage at times. He would have shared translations for the rest of the year for the information, it could be very valuable and- if some players were high up, perhaps even dangerous to be poking around. Runes homework was a speck on the wall compared to what he was trying to accomplish. The fact he got biscuits was only a bonus, the Malfoy house elves made excellent sweets and Draco didn't share often.

.~.

The highly anticipated letter finally arrived a few days later, on the morning of the Gryffindor-Hufflepuff match. Harry practically ripped Draco's arm off in his efforts to drag the blond back to the dorm room so he could get his hands on them. It was torture having to watch the owl bringing the documents and having to act as though he didn't care in the least. He never knew if someone was watching and he was sure his inquiries had ruffled more than a few feathers- best not to be tied to the situation at least in the meantime.

Draco finally wrenched his arm free of Harry and handed him the letter with a sour look. "My father had to bribe five ministry officials to even look at those- another three to get copies," he scowled. Harry scanned over the documents rapidly trying to find the key piece of information.

"Right here! Dumbledore, Crouch, and Bagnold all signed a stay of conviction for Sirius Orion Black," Harry grabbed another book to cross reference. "Crouch and Bagnold resigned shortly after the Death Eaters trials- they either were in on it or assumed the Dumbledore would dig up the paperwork to try Black once the war died down completely. Everyone has assumed Black has had his trial but he never did."

"Which means?" Draco stared at him with a perplexed looked. Harry struggled to reign in his emotions as his anger flared.

"Dumbledore never gave Black a trial. He could have sentence the rightful Lord Black to 13 years of Azkaban! What if he is innocent of the crimes Draco?" Harry asked eyes wide as he tried to process the information himself.

There was something missing, he couldn't figure out why Dumbledore would let an innocent man rot in prison but it didn't make much sense that Dumbledore would deny someone a trial. The law was clear, the stay of conviction was only good for three years. How could the paperwork have gotten buried for so long unless it had been buried on purpose?

"That would be-" Draco trailed off stunned.

"Exactly, I think this goes deeper than you think. Can I trust you?" Harry asked, silently scolding himself for even thinking about it.

" Harry- I think we are already conspiring against one of the most powerful wizards in Britain, I don't think you have a choice. If Dumbledore is behind all this, he is not going to be happy about the inquiries," Draco stared at the offending piece of paper.

"Shit," Harry mumbled. "Here it goes. Dumbledore is my legal guardian and I've never even spoken to him. He dropped me and Charlie off at the muggles in the middle of the night on the doorstep. The Goblins suspect he was in possession of serval Potter heirlooms taken from Godric's Hollow," Harry stopped at Draco's offended look. Heirlooms were precious to pureblood families, things of honor and prestige that proved their bloodlines, stealing them was one of the most looked down upon crimes in the wizarding world.

"They couldn't do anything but retrieve them because he claimed he was acting under his role as my guardian. He is using Snape to pressure me into returning to the muggles despite knowing I am not welcomed there," he explained quietly as though scared that someone might overhear. It was only them two and there were no portraits about but Harry didn't think he could be too careful. The castle was under Dumbledore's control after all.

Draco stood in shocked silence for a long time before coming out of his stupor. "But how does Black fit into all of this?" he asked.

"I don't know but I know someone who might- Lupin and Black were friends together with my father. Maybe he knows something?" Harry suggested.

"What if he does and he's with Dumbledore?"

Harry sighed pinching the bridge of his nose. "I think that's a risk I have to take. I've already dropped hints about the matter to him and he hasn't seemed to act on them yet." He chewed on his bottom lip as he tried to calm his nerves.

"It's a gamble," Draco warned.

"Nothing is solid evidence," Harry agreed. He gathered up all of his notes and the documents and buried them in his trunk placing an elaborate locking charm.

"No good, anyone could dismantle that. Got something sharp? You can lock it into only recognizing your magical signature with a bit of blood," Draco suggested. Harry raised an eyebrow.

"That sounds an awful lot like blood magic," he accused.

"It's not like you're sacrificing a virgin under the full moon. I doubt the ministry cares about blood magic this small." Draco shrugged and went over to his side of the room. He came back with a small silver knife. Harry contemplated it for a moment before taking the knife. "What do I do?"

"Cut the tip of your finger, smear it on the lock. It's the same as a regular locking charm except for the blood and incantation- _Sanguinis Colloportus,_ " Draco explained. Harry glanced at the knife once more time for proceeding with Draco's instructions.

" _Sanguinis Colloportus,_ " he said and the ornate lock that adorned his trunk glowed a brilliant red. He felt the surge in power and magic dancing around his fingertips. The very blood pulsing to the tip of his finger seemed to be dancing in joy. He pushed down the feeling and the urge to look into blood magic more. The ministry had outlawed it years ago, the penalties were severe. He was quite sure that said officials decided to ignore the Slytherin doors that worked with the same magic, he wondered briefly if it had been grandfathered in or perhaps those who did know the secret did not care to report it.

"It worked, see," Draco tried to unlock the trunk without any success. Harry tried it and found he could easily open the trunk.

"Shit! I'm supposed to be in the stands for reconnaissance," Draco suddenly exclaim gathering his coat and scarf.

"Flint?" Harry asked, helping Draco gather a bit of parchment and quill for notes. "You'll want to use impervious, it's raining buckets out there," he offered. Draco scowled but casted the spell anyway on the quill and parchment.

"Let me guess? Flint is going to be staying nice and dry along with the rest of the team, and you'll be going out there to get soaked?" Harry raised his eyebrow slightly amused.

"It's important work!" Draco protested.

"You're late for your important work- better not let Flint catch you on the way out," Harry snickered slightly as Draco ran out the door rather undignified not even bothering to close it behind him. Harry wiped the amused look off his face as Draco backtracked and stuck his head in the door.

"Aren't you coming?" Draco exclaimed impatiently. Harry shook his head.

"No thank you, it's cold and nasty. Have fun," Harry laughed. "I'll stay here and work on my charms essay."

Draco rolled his eyes and darted off again.

"MALFOY! You're supposed to be watching the game!" Harry heard Flint shout from the hallway. Harry cringed for Draco as he went to shut the door. That would mean laps for Draco next practice- Harry was sure. Harry didn't envy Draco and he knew he could never even dream of paying Quidditch with Flint sticking around as Captain- not that he wished to with the brute heading the team.

Harry went back over to his bed and got out his things for his charms assignment. He read over the passages without much progress for a long time before giving up. The silence around him was too deafening. He decided to go bother Gemma in the hospital wing. He opened the door and looked out both ways before gingerly stepping out wanting to avoid Flint and his gang and continuing on his way to the Hospital Wing. Gemma greeted him as he stepped in the door.

"What's wrong with you now?" she asked, examining over him as if looking for defects.

"It's cold in the dungeons," Harry grinned before hopping onto a bed.

"That bed is for sick people!" Gemma rested a hand on her hip, perfectly mimicking Madame Pomfrey's pinched look. Harry looked around the room and only spotted one bed occupied nearby him. Madame Pomfrey walked out of her office and came to investigate.

"And what is wrong with you today, Mr. Potter?" she asked him.

"I have a headache and I can't seem to get warm. I've been shaking most of the day and I feel kind of bad, like when the dementors were around but not as bad as that," he offered, perfecting the look on his face with ease to make it seem as though he was in discomfort.

"Tsk. I knew having dementors around would be nothing but trouble. Relax here for a while, Mr. Potter and eat some chocolate- you'll never get warm in those dungeons. Gemma, be a dear and get him some hot chocolate would you?" Madame Pomfrey dictated as she checked his forehead and did some scans. "And add a couple drops of headache relief."

Harry waited until Pomfrey turned her back to stick his tongue out at Gemma. The only sign that she had seen was the slight twitching of the corner of her mouth.

"Of course Madame Pomfrey," she answered sweetly leaving to go follow the orders. Madame Pomfrey retreated back into her office, most likely to brew some of the potions needed to stock the wing. Harry knew that Snape brewed some of the more complicated ones but Madame Pomfrey and Gemma brewed most of the ones used on the students in their free time in between healing broken bones and black eyes. He wasn't going to stay for long, not wanting to bother Gemma in the middle of her studies.

Harry situated himself in the bed and got out his charms book. He was getting comfortable taking notes for his essay and sipping his hot chocolate when he was disturbed by his only roommate.

"You're Harry Potter," the girl said turning over to face him from several beds away. Harry grimaced slightly, recognizing her vaguely from the newest batch of Slytherin first years. He decided to turn and ignore her.

"You have no right to ignore me!" the girl protested. Harry turned slightly to glance at her.

"Yeah I kind of think I do," he replied.

"No, I'm a Greengrass. People don't just ignore me!" the girl pouted folding her arms in. Harry held back a groan as it finally clicked into place, he was beginning to see why it seemed Daphne disliked her little sister.

"I'll tell my sister you were mean to me! She'll hex you," Astoria threatened. Harry resisted the urge to roll his eyes at her antics. It seemed she got more and more frustrated the more he ignored her. He was content to continue for as long as he needed till she got the hint.

"Come on I'm bored! I've been stuck here for days."

"Be bored then," Harry stated. Astoria started crying out of nowhere and Gemma came along to see what was wrong. Astoria pointed towards Harry, clinging to Gemma's sleeve with tears still rolling down her face.

"He called me a brat!" she accused. Gemma looked at him with a raised eyebrow and he merely shrugged at her.

"Okay calm down. I'm sure he didn't mean it. How about I get you some hot chocolate as well? To make you feel better?" Gemma offered. Astoria nodded slowly wiping her tears away with a silk handkerchief. As soon as Gemma left, Astoria stared at Harry with a satisfied smirk. Harry definitely saw why Daphne didn't like her sister. He decided to continue to ignore her.

"Here," Gemma said as she handed Astoria the steaming drink along with a chocolate frog. "I'll have a talk with Mr. Potter," she reassured the girl whose tears had magically reappeared as Gemma returned. Gemma came over to Harry and closed the curtains around his bed before casting a basic privacy spell that would keep Astoria from overhearing their conversion.

"Don't tell me you actually believed that trite?" Harry asked with a skeptical look.  
"Not a single second but her father is on the board at St. Mungos and is involved in the hiring so-"

"So you keep daddy's little princess nice and pampered hoping that she will tell daddy what a good healer you would make," Harry finished with a smirk. Gemma nodded in affirmation. That at least he could understand.

"Here, take three points for Slytherin for getting that right," she said with a mischievous grin on her face.

"Why?" Harry asked, rather skeptical of that particular look. He was worried he was going to have to do something to earn them.

"Because I'm about to take 3 points off for a little show and I'm not having us actually lose 3 points. Ignore everything I'm about to say," Gemma explained before canceling the spell. That he could live with, and if it helped Gemma get in St. Mungos's good graces he was content to let her put on the theatrics. "And that is no way to treat your fellow Slytherin. 3 points from Slytherin and if I hear of that kind of behavior I will have you scrubbing floors with Filtch!"

"Yes Prefect Farley. I understand," Harry played along sounding thoroughly cowed. Gemma opened up the curtained and was about to walk away when the doors slammed open. Madame Pomfrey came out of her office in a hurry to see what the commotion was. Dumbledore and McGonagall rushed in levitating a limp figure in Gryffindor robes. Madame Pomfrey rushed the figure to the other side of the wing into a more private location and must have casted a secrecy ward because Harry couldn't hear anything being said despite the fact it looked as though many of the people were raising their voices.

"I better go check and see if Madame Pomfrey needs any help," Gemma said rushing over after Harry nodded. She went over to the figured and glanced back at him nervously before walking back over.

"It's Charlie. Dementors swarmed around the Quidditch pitch and he passed out on his broom and fell a few hundred feet," she whispered quickly surveying his face as expecting a reaction.

"Oh, I guess he's still alive if they brought him here then?" Harry asked, glancing over at that direction.

"Professor Dumbledore managed to stop him before he hit the ground but he's unconscious. Madame Pomfrey is looking him over now to decide if he will need to go to London," Gemma narrowed her eyes slightly. "You okay over here?"

"Go off and save boy wonder. Hate to have the whole wizarding world in mourning," he shrugged. Gemma struggled to keep the amusement from showing on her face before heading back over to Charlie's bedside.

Harry went back to his charms assignment this time sitting cross legged in the bed. He paid no mind to the professors that were in the room. It seemed that Astoria had grown bored with bothering him as well as she remained quiet, staring at the ceiling in the few times that Harry had glanced at her.

"It's only going to get worst the longer the dementors stay here," Harry spoke up as he felt Dumbledore sweeping past his bed on the way out. He heard the footsteps stop.

"Indeed, many of our neighbors in the forest have grown restless," Dumbledore spoke. Harry felt his gaze and looked up without closing his book. "There is nothing to worry about, however. Sirius Black will soon be apprehend and the dementors will return to their rightful home."

Dumbledore studied over him for a moment longer before continuing his trek out of the hospital wing. Harry kept a neutral expression as much as possible with the blinding power that surrounded and swirled around the ancient wizard. Harry avoided close quarters with the headmaster for that very reason, along with not trusting him in the slightest.

"What's that all about?" Gemma asked as she walked over. Harry shrugged slightly as the pressure lessened in the air. "Charlie is-"

"Fine, I know. I can feel his magic clearly now that Dumbledore is gone," Harry answered for her. He began to gather his stuff. "I think I'm going to head back now. Draco will be waiting."

"Wait!" Gemma spoke up suddenly. Harry stopped and looked at her in confusion but followed her orders none the less. "Did you say feel? Harry, can you sense magic?" she whispered quietly so that only Harry could hear. He shrugged nonchalantly.

"You can't?" he replied. Gemma continued to look at him in shock. "Gemma?"

"No wonder you've had such a wretched time since those disgusting creatures have gotten here," Gemma enacted privacy wards around them once more to keep out eavesdroppers as some of the Gryffindor's began to file in from the game. No doubt they were here to check on Charlie. She closed the curtains around Harry's bed. "Not everyone is a magiapath, Harry. Less born so. It explains why the dementors have such a bad effect on you, especially if it's untrained."

Harry continued to look at Gemma in confusion. "It means you can sense magic around you. Some people can even see it in the air. It's a rather rare ability," she began to explain. "Wait…can you see it?" Gemma asked. Harry shook his head, he hadn't thought so anyway. Harry decided to listen to her closely, he had never known that not everyone could feel the magic around them. He had thought it was a natural thing everyone could do so he never bothered to mention it to anyone.

"Only a couple people every few years are born with it and the number grows lower every decade. It's possible to learn the skill but difficult- many people don't bother," Gemma continued.

"Oh," Harry replied as he processed the new information. Gemma looked at him in concern.

"People who can sense it make excellent trackers. I'm sure with enough practice you could be able to discern people's magical signatures with ease. It would probably help your headaches as well if you get better control over it." Harry nodded slightly along as Gemma spoke more and more rapidly. "My father knows some people. Maybe there is a book that can help?" Gemma offered.

"Alright, I'm really going to go now. This is all too much for one day," Harry spoke standing up and going to retract the curtain around them. Gemma looked at him with a deep furrowed frown. "Fine, go ahead and ask your father but keep my name out of it. I have enough to worry about."

Harry returned his dorm to find that Draco was at the desk scrawling on a piece of paper- no doubt trying to draw up some of the Gryffindor's plays for Flint to see. Harry decided he would rather not suffer through Draco's enthusiasm for Quidditch and instead sat in one of the plush green chairs Draco had insisted to be delivered for their dorm. Harry had argued that there wasn't enough room but soon gave up when Draco began to speak about different fabrics. He sat and began to proof read over the essay he had written in the hospital wing.

Harry thought about what Gemma had said. Perhaps trying to figure out this skill of his would be beneficial in the long run. He reread the same sentence several times before giving up on it. He leaned back in the chair and closed his eyes- unsure of what he was doing, he remained still thinking that perhaps the answer would jump out at him. He thought back to the time when he had figured out Petunia had a bit of magic. It was easy then in the house that was devoid of anything magical but here the magic was seeped everywhere from the very stones that made the walls to the runes that adorned the chair he was sitting on. It was difficult to find what he was looking for in such a rich environment.

The only thing he was succeeding in doing was giving himself a headache. He persisted against the pain however, determined to make it work. It seemed as though hours had passed and he could feel his limbs growing heavier by the second. The only noise that accompanied the overall silence was Draco's pen occasionally scratching against the parchment. That too then came to a sudden stop.

"Invisibilia atramento," Draco spoke as Harry felt a slight shift, a pulse of energy before the moment was gone. Harry opened his eyes and looked around to see Draco pointing his wand at the piece of paper he was writing on and then hold up the paper only for Harry to see it was completely blank. Harry grimaced as his headache grew more furious and began pounding.

"You okay?" Draco asked looking at him as he groaned slightly in pain.

"I think I'm going to head to bed early. I've got a headache," Harry answered. He decided he had enough with trying to use his ability for the day. Draco gave him an appraising look before nodding.

"Got to go give this to Flint. Let me know if you need Farley," Draco spoke as he grabbed a cloak off the nearby chair and headed out the door. Harry crawled into bed and fell asleep as soon as he pulled the covers over him to ward off the cold of the dungeons.

* * *

A/N: Thank you for the reviews!


	8. Chapter 7

He banished the creatures away with a casual flick of his wand. The few wizards that accompanied him seemed nervous even in their garb that covered their features- pathetic the lot of them. The wizard guards had been no problem, he had merely killed them on sight. Child's play really. It was a shame to spill magical blood but it wouldn't do to have any witnesses reporting what would take place on this night.

It was important to strike while Black was still alive and able to take the blame and with the dementors around every corner there was no telling how long that will be. It was no matter, he had planned for this very moment for months, years. He needed more forces to carry his work in the shadows if he was to be a public figure now. He wanted no one the wiser of his return except for those he had carefully selected from his old servants- it would ruin everything he had toiled for. However, being a public figure in society limited him in some ways.

A mad crackling filled their air as they grew closer to the cells that held his most loyal, those that proudly proclaimed his greatness instead of deny him. They would be perfect for what he needed them for. The atmosphere grew heavy, as it had begun to storm violently outside the thin walls of the prison. No matter to him as it shouldn't affect his carefully laid plans but perhaps he should get this over with. Those with him had become more and more anxious as the moments passed, he was beginning to wonder why he even bothered to bring them other than to help transport the weaker prisoners.

He tilted his head slightly to observe the magic that laced its way around the cells, it was rather simple as they relied on the demonic creatures and remote location as security. It was a mistake,he mused, that would have to be fixed. He extended his slender pale hand and with no incantation the doors to the cells swung open. The emaciated prisoners filed out bowing, touching their foreheads to the ground in front of him.

They sang his praises and continued to prostrate their bony frames on the jagged cold floor. What a wonderful master he must be after all, to go through all the trouble.

Harry woke up with a start in confusion expecting to see the eerie island and skeletal prisoners. Instead he woke up in the faint glow of the lake streaming through the window. He pinched his arm hard enough to leave a darkening bruise to make sure that he was indeed awake. The hyper realistic dreams seemed to be coming more and more often. It was sometimes difficult to distinguish between the dreams and reality.

He looked over to find Draco already gone, probably off to breakfast. He quickly dressed and made his way to the Great Hall to find the rest of the Slytherins, it seemed he had overslept.

The Hall was alive with chatter and grim frightened faces. He took his seat at the Slytherin table and no sooner had he went to open his mouth to ask what had happen, the Daily Prophet was shoved under his nose. He took the offered paper and begun to read the large headline.

 _"MASS BREAKOUT FROM AZKABAN_

 _The Ministry of Magic announced late last night that there has been a mass breakout from Azkaban._

 _Speaking to reporters in his private office, Cornelius Fudge, Minister for Magic, confirmed that ten high-security prisoners escaped in the early hours of yesterday evening, and that he has already informed the Muggle Prime Minister of the dangerous nature of these individuals._

 _"We find ourselves, most unfortunately, in the same position we were mere months ago when the murderer Sirius Black escaped," said Fudge last night. "Nor do we think the two breakouts are unrelated. An escape of this magnitude suggests outside help, and we must remember that Black, as the first person ever to break out of Azkaban, would be ideally placed to help others follow in his footsteps. We think it likely that these individuals, who include Black's cousin, Bellatrix Lestrange, have rallied around Black as their leader. We are, however, doing all we can to round up the criminals and beg the magical community to remain alert and cautious. On no account should any of these individuals be approached._

 _This has called into question the security of the prison itself. Despite this, Amelia Bones the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement could not be reached for comment. The Daily Prophet offices has made multiple attempts to contact Bones to help ease our viewer's worries about the apparent resurgence of the Death Eaters. With the continued silence from the department tasked with our protection-_

 _We have to ask, our dear readers, are we truly as safe as we think we are? " (1)_

Harry turned white as he saw the pictures of the prisoners, the very same people he had seen in his dream last night bowing before him. He tried to rationalize his dream, to explain it away somehow but was coming up empty.

He suddenly realize that they had been calling him their lord and master. These escapees were confirmed Death Eaters. Their only master was Lord Voldemort, and he knew better than most that Voldemort was alive and kicking about. He wondered if he had been seeing through Voldemort's eyes, but he couldn't explain how it had happened. He had obviously not left Hogwarts last night though, so there had to be an explanation of how he had seen the breakout before he had even known about it.

"They think Black is behind all of this," Draco commented as Harry tried to digest the news. He turned down the food that Nott offered him. He suddenly wasn't hungry and he was far from the only one. Many students around the Great Hall looked rather green and picking at their food. Longbottom at the Gryffindor table look as though he would pass out any moment. The Professors were all missing, most likely having an emergency staff meeting to discuss the latest events.

Harry turned his attention back to Draco who jabbed him hard on the arm. "I don't think it was him," he replied quietly, shaking his head in disbelief. "More like someone blame him."

Draco shrugged slightly. "The dementors will be out in full force now. One prisoner escape and they were bad enough now…" Draco trailed off with a slight shudder. Harry bit his thumb nervously, not caring about etiquette at the moment. He glanced around quickly expecting someone to say something but no one even bothered to correct his behavior. Everyone was toowrapped up in their own conversations. More dementors meant there was more of a chance they would catch Black before Harry could investigate further. Harry was beginning to think more and more that the events of thirteen years ago were connected and somehow Dumbledore was behind all of it.

"Are you done eating?" Gemma asked walking up to them. Harry looked at the food on the table and the glaring headline once more before nodding. "Good, care to join me?"

Harry went to stand up immediately.

"Why do you want Harry?" Draco asked with a quirked eyebrow. Gemma stared at Draco with an unimpressed look.

"I want to see you in the hospital wing at three. I need to check that am again," she finally said after studying over Draco carefully. "Worry more about yourself, Malfoy."

Harry gave Draco an apologetic look before faithfully following Gemma without any more questions. He knew it was hopeless to protest. There was no amusement showing on her face as she led him back down into the dungeons through the mostly empty common room. He followed her into her room, mostly confused but Gemma seemed serious and he didn't dare argue with her despite apprehension settling in.

He had never been in her room before. It was rather bare with only on bed and healing texts strewn across the room in various positions. A few potion bottles adorned the nearby desk but most of everything was neat and orderly. It seemed she didn't spend enough time in her room to create much of a mess.

Harry watched as Gemma reached under her bed and pulled out a small trunk. His confusion just continued to grow as she carefully unlocked it.

"Uh…Gem?' he asked slowly. She put up one finger to signal him to be quiet. They fell in to silence again.

Gemma pilfered through the trunk until pulling out a royal blue tome with silver thread binding it. It had no title embossed nor did it give any inkling of what kind of book it was.

"Here, take this. Go put it some place safe in your room," she said handing it over to Harry. Harry took it in his hands and looked over it. He flipped the first few pages to find grotesque illustrations depicting various curses and hexes.

"I don't even want to know where you got this at," Harry said cautiously shutting the book quickly.

"My father knows people. Study it but don't let any professors catch you. It's banned by the ministry for being dark magic," Gemma answered him. Harry reopened it to look through a few more pages before shutting it close again, feeling slightly sick at the imagery. "This is only a starting point. I have more at home I want you to read over. You need to learn as much as possible. Death Eaters roaming free- you'll be one of their number one targets."

Harry doubted that slightly, as he was becoming rather sure that Voldemort had been instrumental in the prison escape and the dark lord didn't seem apt to kill him yet. He took the book and carefully tucked it hidden in his robes.

Harry decided it wouldn't hurt to at least look through the tome. If it were banned, there was no telling how many copies had survived ministry raids. At the very least it would help him identify any nasty curses people might throw his way especially if the dark lord had a change of heart. He knew he would have to be careful not to be caught with it. He didn't fancy paying the fines or answering the questions that would crop up.

"You should distance yourself from Malfoy," Gemma warned. Harry stared at her defiantly but Gemma refused to back down from her statement. "His aunt, one of the most zealous Death Eaters, just escaped Azkaban and I know you aren't stupid enough to believe that his father is innocent of his wrongdoings. I don't believe in his mother's charitable acts either, she's a Black and madness runs in that blood."

Harry squashed the growing anger in his stomach. "Don't give me that look," Gemma crossed her arms glaring at him.

"You are allowed to believe what you want. However, Draco has given me no reason to believe he means me harm and until he does I refuse to listen to this," Harry argued as he braced himself expecting Gemma to begin to yell. She opened her mouth a few times before glaring at him. Harry shrugged in defiance.

"I hope you don't grow to regret that decision," she finally spoke up pointing towards the door. Harry wisely selected to leave, not wishing to incur any further wrath. He went and hid his spoils in his newly protected trunk. Gemma would calm down eventually, and if she wasn't casting hexes at him she couldn't be that mad. He normally wouldn't protest but Draco hadn't given him any reason to be suspicious. Besides that, the Malfoys were a tremendously powerful family and Harry had no intention of turning them against him on the suggestion of one person.

.-.

"I was surprised to receive your note, I didn't think you would be inviting me back for tea," Harry staring at Lupin intently. The professor had avoided him like the plague for more than a month. It was quite masterful the way Lupin disappeared as soon as class was over to ensure Harry didn't track him down. Masterful but annoying as Harry had not gotten any further in his quest and he really hoped Lupin could enlighten him on a few things. At least Black had yet to be caught, which meant the man was still running around somewhere- mostly likely in his dog form.

Not that Harry had sat idle for the time it took to get this far. He had been practicing with his gift, getting better at focusing on one source of magic even in the dense halls of Hogwarts. It gave him less of a headache now, and it was coming easier to him. He still couldn't focus for too long without consequences but he was careful not to push too much too fast.

Lupin sighed wearily, the bags under his eyes seemed more pronounced than ever. "Ah, you pulled nanny duty didn't you? Someone was worried I would run off and cause trouble- Dumbledore, I bet," Harry asked as walked over to a nearby window and peered out at the snow falling. It caught his attention. Lupin certainly didn't seem happy at the prospect of entertaining him, Harry had seen the deep scowl embedded on his face.

"What makes you say that?" Lupin asked.

"It wasn't that hard to figure out." Harry shrugged. "Someone's got to watch the evil one to make sure he doesn't go off torturing first years or whatever they are saying about me lately," he elaborated. He turned to see Lupin rubbing his neck nervously.

"No one says that," Lupin protested, unconvincingly. Harry resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the middle aged man- as if he actually would attempt to torture first years with so many eyes on him no matter how much the little Greengrass and Prewett annoyed him. It simply wasn't worth the risk.

Harry reached into his robes as he grew tired of the conversation going nowhere. After all, he hadn't come to argue about whether or not he was being watched over. He had come to find out if Lupin was going to be a help or a hindrance. He took out a copy of his findings about Black and sat them cautiously on Lupin's desk. Lupin glanced over them quickly.

"What's all this?" he asked quietly as Harry blocked him from reading too closely.

"How well did you know Sirius Black?" Harry answered with another question, he needed an indication of Lupin's loyalties before he took another leap forward.

"Your father, Black, Peter, and I were all good friends. Thick as thieves as the professors would say. I thought I knew everything about him until the night James and Lily died," Lupin shook his head as he spoke. "I always thought he would die rather than betray James- but-"

"But he did, and then he killed Pettigrew for trying to apprehend him," Harry offered, studying Lupin shaky frame. Harry glanced around before quietly sprawling on a piece of parchment ' _Know any good privacy charms? I think we can help each other but I don't want to risk myself or my information. You must trust me, we each have little choice in the matter'._

Lupin looked at him in confusion for long time before raising his wand and erected the privacy charms. Harry felt them lock into place, he focused on them for a second and they felt solid. He at last felt comfortable enough to speak more freely.

"What if Black isn't guilty? Everyone says he was one of the Dark Lord's top lieutenant's except for those with Death Eater ties," Harry started, raising his hand to stop Lupin's immediate protests. "I've met him- in Surrey. He didn't try to kill me or anything, kind of strange for the Dark Lord's top man. He even helped me… sort of in a roundabout way but he did help."

"He must have been trying to get your guard down," Lupin persisted, refusing to believe him. It didn't bother Harry so much, he knew it was a stretch.

"I don't think so. The state I was in he would have been able to easily taken me out with his bare hands." Harry held the evidence he had brought, wondering if he was really doing the right thing here. This could all blow up in his face but now it was too late and he didn't even know the memory charm to try and wipe the memories of this meeting from Lupin's mind. He cursed himself silently for even considering this, it was too many risk without a big enough payout to justify. He should have listen to Draco more. "I decided to look into it more, and much to my surprise I found no records of a trial every taking place. So I began to dig further, I needed something to occupy my time."

He held out the papers to Lupin who cautiously took them as if they would explode. Harry waited in silence as Lupin read over his notes, all cited intensively on where he had found his information. It was easy to confirm what he had noted to be true if one looked in the books he had noted. He took a seat as Lupin flipped through each page carefully reading every word.

Lupin looked up and dropped the papers on the desk. "He never received a trial" he simply stated, looking rather dumbfounded, "but Dumbledore said he had been found guilty without a doubt." Lupin picked up the papers again and began reading fervently as if they would tell a different tale.

"You see, what I don't get is why? What did Dumbledore stand to gain from this?" Harry asked. Lupin's brow furrowed further. "I'm not saying he is innocent and if he turns out to be guilty- I'll be the first one lining up to watch him get Kissed. But to deny him a trial? What's Dumbledore trying to cover up?"

"The days after the war were chaotic. The case could have been lost in the shuffle?" Lupin offered, sounding quite desperate.

"Sure, I would have thought the same. Except, Black was quite adamant that Pettigrew is really alive living as a rodent with a missing finger," Harry countered crossing his arms. Lupin jerked suddenly but made no move to confirm or deny if it were possible. Harry decided he had pushed the man far enough and it would be best to let the information digest in until Lupin was ready to talk to him. He decided not to let Lupin know anymore at least for now. For all he knew, Lupin wasn't aware Black was an animagus.

"I implore you not to turn me into Dumbledore. I'm only making a friendly inquiry. Call it an interest in wizarding law," Harry offered looking at his cup of abandoned tea. "I'll leave those to you, I have my own copies stored and hidden away," he added as he inspected his fingernails trying to seem calmer then he really was. Lupin made no move or sound to stop him so Harry walked out the door.

He decided to take a detour instead of heading straight for the dungeons, knowing full well that there were plenty of first and second years spread about chatting insistently. He was walking up the tower to visit Hedwig when he stopped to sit in an alcove, which featured a large window, to watch the snow fall out the window. As most of the school was away in Hogsmeade, the ground laid covered and undisturbed.

"It's very pretty, isn't it?" a dreamy voice spoke braking the precious silence Harry had been enjoying. Instead of growing annoyed, he turned his head to see a petite girl in Ravenclaw robes. He tilted his head slightly, the girl was slightly familiar. He recalled Gemma talking to her a time or two.

"Luna … Lovegood, right?" he asked. She nodded happily, humming slightly in affirmation.

"And you're Harry." She smiled brightly as she skipped to the window and stared out along with him. Her gaze went straight the far away dementors circling around the perimeter of the school. "They say dementors were created from Ekrizsis's victims of Black Magic. That or demons summoned from another world using muggle sacrifices. The walls of Azkaban still bleed blood every so often. I read it in a book," Luna explained calmly.

"Interesting reading for what a second year?" Harry asked as he raised an eyebrow at the small witch. She nodded happily, clapping her hands together.

"There is no good or evil magic, only various shades of grey," she spoke as she twirled a piece of hair rather inattentive as if remembering something someone told her a long time ago.

"Careful, that sounds an awfully lot like a Death Eater saying," Harry warned. She giggled loudly.

"I've always found that name more funny than scary. How does one eat Death?" she explained after he gave her an odd look. Harry smirked in amusement, he had never thought about it that way. A dementor passed by the part of the forest closest to them. Harry shivered violently and pulled his robes closer to then to fend of the sudden rush of cold he felt even from this far away from the creatures and through the castle walls.

"You can feel their magic can't you?" Luna asked tilting her head at him. Harry noticed her lips had turned slightly blue as if she had been outside in the snow. "They should have never been allowed this close to Hogwarts. They infect her magic with sickness and death. It will take many years after their departure for her to recover completely," she continued. Harry was alarmed at first, but he felt at ease around the petite girl. Her magic felt comforting if a bit odd.

Harry nodded his agreement. The more time the dementors remained close to Hogwarts the worst the magic around the grounds felt. They continued to look out the window, neither one feeling inclined to move or even speak anymore. As they stood vigil, a few groups of students began making their way back to Hogwarts a bit early. Among those Harry spotted a couple familiar faces. It seemed Granger and Weasley had headed back early mostly likely unable to spend the day without Charlie. Pathetic really.

"I've always found it odd that Ron Weasley's rat is so old. I grew up near them and Ginny says that Scabbers has to be at least thirteen years old since that's when the rat showed up in their garden. I wonder if it's a new species with an incredibly long lifespan," Luna changed the subject as she followed his gaze to the other two. Harry glanced sideways at her, curious why she would bring it up. That was uncanny if it were true, as Black had said Weasley had the rat that was supposedly Pettigrew and thirteen years would place right in the timeline of events. Thirteen years was definitely a stretch even for a magical rat's lifespan as well. "Perhaps I should tell Daddy he should investigate although he is in Romania after a reported nargle sighting. He should be back soon though maybe he can look into at around Christmas time?"

Harry stared dumbfounded as the blonde skipped away merrily. So many things raced through his mind, including wondering what the hell a nargle was. The girl had to be a loon, but then again she seemed very intelligent from their earlier conversation. He decided not to discount her so quickly, the quirky girl could be useful in the future.

* * *

(1): Parts of Daily Prophet article taken from article of same name from Harry Potter and Order of Phoenix by JK Rowling.

Author's note: I apologize for the wait on this chapter. I recently got promoted in my job and have had to find a new routine for my writing because of the increased hours. I will at least update once a month but my goal will be twice a month. Thank you everyone for you favorites, follows, and reviews.

I read and appreciate every review even if I don't reply! It encourages me to finish my story when I see people enjoying what I have written!

Thank you all for your patience! Status updates on Nightfall can be found on my bio, including a teaser for the next chapter!

All content is self-edited.


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